


You Want Me

by MystyVander



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bonding, Creature Fic, Hogwarts Era, M/M, Veela Draco
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-27
Updated: 2014-06-29
Packaged: 2018-02-06 09:25:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 21
Words: 65,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1852930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MystyVander/pseuds/MystyVander
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Draco Malfoy's a Veela and Harry Potter is his mate, though he chooses not to accept this. The problem is, Harry knows too much for his own good and isn't as innocent as people seem to think he is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Anticipating Inheritance

**Author's Note:**

> This is another cross-post, from 2010. It is one of my favourites!   
> Disclaimer: Anything you recognize, I do not own!   
> Also, I do know Draco's actual birthday is in June. I have altered it for the sake of the story, I hope this is deemed acceptable. Enjoy, my loves.

_"...He got pretty much anything he wanted in this school. Except when it came to Harry Potter,"_

It was a cold winter's day at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry; the expansive grounds were topped in heavy falling snow that blanketed the castle which was the only thing in sight for quite some distance. The rare few students ventured out that Wednesday morning for a brisk walk to the Owlry or perhaps just for fresh air, most stayed cooped up inside curled up in front of their Common Room fireplaces.

Draco Malfoy found himself sourly cursing in the mirror. He had been at it for nearly an hour now after he had a nice warm shower to wake-up. Breakfast was to begin in twenty minutes and he still couldn't get it right!

Fuming, he thrust his hair comb down on the bathroom counter and crossed his arms to stare at his reflection. He was a boy of nearly seventeen years old but he looked much more defined than that. He still had rather pale skin with light, piercing grey eyes, his lips were a soft pink and rather thin and drawn out. Draco had grown to be about five-foot-eight which wasn't so bad for his age, but the fact that he was mostly skin and not much muscle made him look strange but nobody else asides from himself seemed to notice much.

Then there was the issue of his hair. Gods, how he hated his hair at that moment. It was one of those 'bad hair day' issues, and Draco wasn't going to have any of it. He needed to always look absolutely perfect especially in front of the entire student body, otherwise he would have to fake sick for the day.

"Blasted hair! Thinks it can get away with it, can it?" he scowled angrily at himself, he reached for his wand to attempt to re-cast a flattening charm. For some reason his platinum, silken hair that usually fell down perfectly to his pointed chin and that he would tuck behind his ears, decided to stick straight upwards and outwards that day, at all sort of odd angles. 

After casting a few more spells and dragging the comb through his hair and adding numerous balms, Draco deemed that he looked acceptable though not his best. As he emerged from the boys lavatory in the Slytherin dungeons, all female and some male eyes followed him. Ignoring them, he went to his sixth year boys dormitory to collect his school books for his first couple of periods, when he entered he caught sight of Gregory Goyle shirtless and immediately felt like retching.

"Goyle, put some bleeding clothes on before my eyes decide to runaway!" Draco snapped as he walked over to his already made bed, ignoring the other boys uncaring grunt.

"Heard you cursing at the mirror again, Malfoy," Blaise Zabini drawled from his bed, he was fully dressed, ready and lying on top of it, perched on one of his elbows, fingering his thick black hair as he stared coolly at Draco who snatched up his school bag. It was a dark brown leather shoulder strap bag with the Malfoy crest as a silver buckle.

"Shove off, Zabini, it's not a sin to take pride in the way one looks," Draco retorted and began to start off towards the dormitory door.

"Hey! Aren't you going to wait for us?" Crabbe asked from his own sleeping area, he was pulling on his shoes at the moment and stumbling around like an utter fool.

Draco raised an eyebrow at him as he brushed a few strands away of his blonde hair that fell in front of his eyes, "The Prince doesn't wait for anybody," Blaise cheekily said, receiving another Malfoy signature scowl.

"Hurry up, you tits," Draco said, leaning against the doorway of the dormitory. Just then somebody flung it open, sending him into an odd sort of dance to keep himself balanced on his feet as his arms flailed momentarily. Once he collected himself and shot a glare at Crabbe and Goyle, who were dumbly snickering at him, he turned to see who was standing in the doorway.

Pansy Parkinson still looked like a pug after all these years with her rounded face and those boring eyes, her hair was flat and utterly a wretched brown colour. It was almost as bad as Hermione Granger's, dare Malfoy think that. "Did you ever think to knock before you come barging into a dormitory you are not permitted to be in?" Draco sneered.

"Breakfast is about to start, Draco dearest," Pansy purred as Draco rolled his eyes and took a few steps back from her to avoid any physical contact she had in mind, "I know you hate being late so I wanted to make sure you boys were up and about," she smiled around at everybody else in the room, "Morning, boys!"

"G'morning Pans," "Morning Pansy," "Parkinson," the last cool comment came from Blaise who finally pulled himself off of his bed and grabbed his school bag. Crabbe and Goyle were finally ready and they all looked expectantly at Draco.

"What?" he asked them snappily.

"Well, you do always lead the way Mister Prat-Prince," Blaise teased and Draco rolled his eyes and walked out of the Boys Dormitory and down the stairs into the Slytherin Common Room, trying his best to ignore the others that followed robotically behind him.

This is what it had always been like. There was a certain routine life in Slytherin territory and Draco seemed to always be the one leading it. He had no idea why, but ever since First Year that was the way it had been and it's not like he had much of a problem with it because that meant he got pretty much anything he wanted in this school. Except when it came to Harry Potter and his little Gryffindork mates. Draco shook off the thought as soon as it came into his head. He didn't mind the insults him and the other Slytherin's would bat at one another, it was just in their general nature. A lot of people thought they were cruel to the other students, but what anybody-who-wasn't-a-Slytherin didn't understand was that even though they seemed favourable to one another, they were really just as cruel if not more so. It added a certain zest to life at Hogwarts, to say the least.

"Porridge? I hate porridge," Draco muttered as he shoved his spoon in his breakfast, they had all arrived and sat in their usual spots. Crabbe on one side of him, Blaise across from him and Pansy reluctantly on his other side. Theodore Nott would eventually show up at one point, but he was always much later and more detached from the rest of the Slytherins in his year, preferring to keep his own personal company.

"So...are you excited for tomorrow?" Pansy asked a little ways into breakfast as more students began to pile into the Great Hall, stomachs grumbling.

"I can only wonder what Mother's gotten me this year," Draco drawled, but he seemed still rather put-off. He didn't really know whether or not he really  _was_  excited for tomorrow.

It was going to be his seventeenth birthday. His thoroughly awaited Coming of Age...but he didn't really comprehend how important that would be to him until the past summer. His Father had sat him down in his study to have a conversation about quite a few important, detailed things. Lucius Malfoy had just been granted a pardon, save that he make an Unbreakable Vow to never serve the Dark Lord again. This Unbreakable Vow was made between Lucius and Albus Dumbledore, which made the pact even more seamless.

At first, Malfoy Senior quite detested to this for fear of his own family's well-being, but it seemed as though the Dark Lord was more than understanding...for he did not call on Lucius nor did he attack him, it seemed as though he had simply forgotten his right-hand man existed. This was fine with Draco and Narcissa, neither had been fond of the War and were quite glad to be in the shades of grey in between it all, not taking sides any more and dealing with their own status' instead. They were still a widely feared and respected family.

The second thing Lucius had to confess to Draco, was about the Malfoy lineage. It turned out that Narcissa and Lucius were not just naturally exceptionally beautiful looking people, especially for their age, but because of a certain gene they both held in their blood. They were both half-Veela's, making them age slowly and remain beautiful through-out the term of their physical lives. They had natural powers of attraction and a slight amount of extra magical aura added to their core, making their magic stronger than the regular witch or wizard. But they were only half-Veelas, they did not have a mate or any other circumstantial qualities.

Both of their genes combined in Draco and created a dominant Veela gene that would awaken upon his inheritance, which would be his seventeenth birthday. This shocked Draco more than he could explain, for he knew exactly what that meant. Veela were a strong magical creature that could be extraordinarily beautiful so they could intoxicate their prey and then once they lured them in, they would become vicious animals. Draco didn't want himself to become something so wild and untamed, he couldn't bear to think it of his refined self. He had spent so many years building his solid reputation, he didn't want one Coming of Age birthday to ruin it all.

Though, he couldn't deny he would love to see how much prettier he could get as more than half of the student body already drooled over him. Witch Weekly named him one of the top five Bachelors of the year, next to Harry Potter of course - but that had nothing to do with his looks, or so Draco convinced himself. There was also the problem of his full magical inheritance, he didn't mind whatsoever because this only meant casting spells and hexes would be much less of a burden on his core.

The down side to being a full fledged Veela was the fact that Draco must take a mate. It was worse when he found out he couldn't even choose his mate, but it was a natural selection that occurs due to ones inner most deepest feelings. At first he had whined and complained, because that meant it could be absolutely anybody at Hogwarts or Durmstrang or Beauxbatons...or even a, dare he say it, Muggle! Then his Mother and Father explained to him that Veela could not choose their mate because there was too big of a possibility of both of them going insane and killing one another after the mating ritual was complete during mating season. The Veela and his mate had to be physically attached for many days afterwards or else the Veela would die, the mate soon following afterwards.

Even after they become used to being apart, they cannot last more than a day or two before going insane and losing the will to live. Therefore, a Veela's mate is chosen without his or her recognition to accommodate their inner feelings that they might not even know they have, and it also finds the most compatible person. Draco just had to cross his fingers and hope to Merlin it was a pureblooded Slytherin bloke...he had figured out at least a year ago, thanks to Padma Patil, that he was most detested with the thought of anything sexual with a female.

This bit of news didn't come as a surprise to anybody, as Draco had begun shacking up with boys for one night stands, but Pansy still didn't seem to catch the memo.

"Ouch! What the bloody hell was that for?" Draco hissed, rubbing the side of his ribs where Crabbe had just elbowed him harshly.

"You dropped porridge on your shirt and I don't think you'd have liked to gone to Transfiguration like that," mumbled the larger boy with a small shrug before returning to barrelling his own breakfast in his mouth.

"I have known you for the better part of my life, Crabbe and it amazes me that you still have yet to learn to chew with your mouth closed. I feel somewhat disappointed in myself," Draco drawled before leaning his elbow on the table and scanning the now full Great Hall.

Looking towards the entrance doors, he saw the Golden Gryffindor Trio striding in. Granger, her bushy-hair bouncing, seemed to be lecturing the two boys flanked at her sides. Ron was flushing furiously and fumbling with his cloak buttons as Harry was merely staring blankly at his feet, his eyes were round and empty beneath his glasses and he was frowning slightly. When the three sat in their usual spots, Harry kept on going without even realizing the other two had sat and was quickly pulled down by Hermione who was still rambling on. Harry looked so dejected. So pathetically  _sad_.

' _He's been like that all year. Does he think he is too good for us here at Hogwarts or something? What the bloody hell is wrong with him?_ ' Draco wondered to himself. His feelings for Harry Potter had always been strange ones. At first it was hatred and jealousy for being turned down during First Year, and then it was envy for all of his attention. The envy soon turned into a somewhat joyous, vicious game for Draco when he noticed over the years that no matter the mood of that certain bespectacled Gryffindor, he was the only one that could get deep under his skin - even if it was in a bad way.

Draco didn't hate Harry Potter. Hate was a very strong word. He certainly didn't like him because, well, he simply didn't know the boy. All that the blonde knew was that he was a Slytherin and Gryffindor's were the enemy, even if it was playful school rivalries he enjoyed it the best he could. But hate...he could never find himself truly hating Potter, no matter how much he convinced his fellow classmates. But the attitude of the raven-haired teenager since term started in September simply befuddled Draco. The blonde had stopped his rapid insults, on pure respect for the fact that Harry always seemed too distracted to even notice them. To even notice Draco whatsoever, or any other Slytherin. The-Boy-Who-Lived barely even noticed his two best friends, or that unnerving Weaselette who was always trying to get his attention in the most ghastly of ways. The Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Remus Lupin, seemed to pay special attention to Potter during classes. He tip-toed around him and whispered questions of concern during work periods. It was actions like that that really got Draco wondering what was wrong.

Draco had been staring at Harry the entire time he thought this and suddenly he was aware that Harry was staring back at him with a confused expression, his brows furrowed underneath his hideous round, broken glasses. Draco blushed and looked back down at his breakfast, ashamed and embarrassed that he was caught staring at Potter.

' _Wait...why am I blushing?_ ' Draco scolded himself and shook it off easily, his mask sliding into place.

"You would think Potter to have developed a sense of fashion by now. Those glasses are an insult to his eyes," Draco scowled without thinking about what he had just said. Now he had most of the Slytherin's around him gawking.

"An insult to his...eyes?" Blaise asked with a cocked eyebrow, Draco shot him an icy glare.

"To everybody's eyes! They're just an insult. Simply atrocious," Draco huffed, crossing his arms and throwing a quick glare over at the Gryffindor Table for good measure.

"Riiight then..." Blaise trailed off, rolling his eyes.

"Why do you always have to bring up Potter?" Goyle asked.

"I do not always bring him up," Draco quickly responded.

"Yes you do, at least three times a day!" Pansy piped in from beside him, "It's a bit annoying, really. You'd think you were in love with him if you didn't hate him so much,"

"I-I..." Draco stopped himself and merely scowled at the pug beside him, saying that he didn't hate Potter would have given them all the idea that he really  _was_  in love with him. "I was merely commenting on somebody's lack of fashion sense. Like you, Parkinson. A navy blue headband with that Slytherin green kilt? Could you get any less coordinated, or did you let the dust bunnies dress you today?" Draco sneered, grateful when he heard the other boys chortle at Pansy's tight-lipped flushed face.

"Could you _be_  any more of a ponce, Malfoy?" Blaise drawled with a hint of playfulness in his brown eyes.

"...would you like to know how much of a ponce I can be?" Draco smiled breath-takingly at Blaise who had to take a deep breath to collect himself. Draco Malfoy was well known for his looks and seductive behaviour, and whenever there was the off chance you found him smiling at you, you could fall in love in a heartbeat.

"Enough you two, gods, it's not even nine thirty and you're on with this codswallop!" Crabbe said, shaking his head. Draco and Blaise chuckled lowly together before the Slytherin's finished their breakfast in silence.

It was a rather uneventful day for Draco, but his mind couldn't help but keep wandering back to the next coming day. He stayed up as late as possible, finishing any and all assignments he had at hand. The longer he waited to sleep, the longer the dreams would stay away. For when the clock struck midnight, not only would Draco's body change, but so would his dreams. They were to be filled with images, colours, or sensations that would lead the Veela to his mate in a sort of sense. It was almost an instinctual thing that happened to Veela.

Draco knew it was imperative he find his mate as soon as possible, for if Veela didn't mate by the time they went through their first mating season, then he would lose the will to live and curl up in a corner to die. This scenario didn't seem too prosperous or productive to Draco so he would have none of it. Finally, five minutes before midnight, Draco crawled reluctantly into bed and closed the hangings, he didn't want to risk being found in the morning without putting glamours on first in case the changes were absolutely hideous, which was highly doubtful considering the nature of his inheritance.

As Draco slowly drifted off into sleep, curled underneath his covers, the only thing that became coherent to him was... _Emerald_.


	2. Lavender and Vanilla

_"D'you think if Malfoy was naked in the snow...you wouldn't be able to see him?"_

He knew that he should have been happy, he was back at Hogwarts and that was the most important thing. He was amongst friends that loved and cared for him, he could go to Hogsmeade any weekend he wanted and have a few drinks with Ron, Seamus and Dean or he could study for his end of term exams with Hermione in the library. If he ever wanted to be alone, he could walk around the Black Lake and look at the beautiful scenery that was Hogwarts.

But for some reason Harry just couldn't find the strength to be happy.

With memories of Sirius' death still so close to him and the ever-growing war caused by Tom Riddle, Harry found it difficult to ever unwind himself. He also found it hard to connect with anybody, even his two best friends. They might have been there for some of his battles, but they still didn't understand the dreams, the prophecy, the connection he had with the darkest wizard of all time. They just couldn't fully understand or grasp it and he knew they never would. He felt utterly alone in a room full of people.

It was Thursday morning and Harry had Double Potions that morning, which was never a good way to start the day. Being locked up in the dungeons with Snape for more than one period was his worst nightmare, same with most of the other Gryffindor's who had gotten into NEWT-Level Potions.

"Oi mate, you up?" Ron asked from just outside Harry's bed hangings where he was hovering on one foot, tying his shoes.

"Yeah, yeah I'm coming," Harry grumbled and slowly pulled himself out of bed. The truth was he had been up for more than two hours, he just never found the need or want to drag himself out of bed until Ron was ready to head down to breakfast. ' _What is the point?_ ' was the question always inside of Harry's head.

Everything seemed so mundane to him, seemed to be done without reason or rhyme. He wanted a purpose, a purpose aside from ridding the world of the Dark Lord, but Harry knew that he wasn't likely to get one.

"We've got Charms after Potions, right?" Harry asked as he finished getting dressed and was gathering his school books.

"You've got Charms mate, I've got Divination. Why in the bloody hell didn't you take it this year again? Now Trelawney is making those sodding death prophecies about me instead!" Ron muttered, Harry snickered and shook his head lightly as his messy raven-hair fell in front of his dull emerald eyes.

"That's exactly why I didn't take it, I had enough of that last year, thanks," Harry grinned and the two best friends left the Gryffindor Tower together. Hermione was already waiting for them in the Common Room as usual, they joined her on either side and Ron tentatively slid his hand into hers and pecked her lightly on the cheek. They had been dating since Halloween and Harry didn't seem to mind, let alone notice.

"Hey 'Mione, do you remember what Snape said we're brewing..."

She didn't let Harry finish his sentence, "Honestly! Don't you ever pay attention?" she asked shrilly as they descended down the many staircases amongst a brigade of other students, "We'll be brewing Euphoria today," she clipped.

"Like...Elixir to Induce...Euphoria?" Ron asked slowly, Harry was following just exactly his best friends line of thinking.

"Yes, is there any other kind?" Hermione snipped.

"Oh bloody hell, the girls will be raving mad," Ron groaned, Harry was smirking silently next to Hermione with his hands in his pockets. He always found it amusing, it would probably be like the time Snape had them brewing Love Potions and Lavender tried to slip him one unsuccessfully and so instead did it to Dean Thomas. Snape had had a field day taking away Gryffindor points that lesson...

They entered the Great Hall and Harry sat down beside Neville and across from Seamus, he greeted them and began to load eggs, toast and sausages onto his plate. The date didn't escape Harry's mind, and for some reason he found himself thinking about it.

It was this day every year that Draco Malfoy would get a pile of presents during the morning post and he would boast about it all next week, especially to Ron. "It's December 17th," Harry said, interrupting Seamus' re-enactment of Neville's performance in yesterday's Transfiguration mishap.

"Er...yeah, it is," Ron said with a raised eyebrow.

"What's so important about December 17th?" Neville asked curiously, cocking his head like a dog.

"It's Malfoy's birthday," Harry shrugged as if it wasn't that big of a deal that he had remembered that and he returned to his breakfast after noticing that the certain Slytherin he had been talking about hadn't shown up yet. He didn't notice the incredulous looks his friends were giving him.

"You remember when Malfoy's birthday is?" Ron asked as if he had been burnt.

"Well yeah, it's been the same day every year for the past six years, hasn't it?" Harry returned coolly, he didn't seem to think anything was wrong with the fact he had remembered this. The other Gryffindor's slowly returned to their meals but Ron leaned in close to him and whispered.

"When's Neville's birthday, mate?" he asked.

Harry took a moment to think and then bit his lip. He had no idea even what month Neville's birthday was in, but then again Neville didn't make as big of a deal as Malfoy did, "I dunno why you're asking..." Harry's voice trailed off as the hairs on the back of his neck all of a sudden stood up.

His eyes shot towards the entrance of the Great Hall and there stalked in Draco Malfoy with Blaise and Pansy on either side of him and the two goons close behind. Ron scowled in their direction and returned to his conversation with the other boys, ignoring Harry's lack of response. Harry found himself captivated by the Slytherin. His platinum hair wasn't gelled as heavily that day, instead it seemed longer and fell around his pointed features. Harry watched him all the way until he sat down in his usual spot, which coincidentally was directly across the hall from Harry's usual spot. The brunette's eyes went wide as he realized that for the past six years, he and Malfoy had always out of habit sat directly across from one another. It was like an unspoken tradition amongst the two of them.

' _There's something different about him..._ ' Harry thought eerily, his eyes peering across the Great Hall. He seemed taller, more filled out than his usual lanky self. His skin, though always pale, seemed to be glittering like the snow when the sun hit it in the early morning. Harry found himself smirking. "What's up mate?" Ron asked, nudging him and trying to follow his line of sight but failing.

"D'you think if Malfoy was naked in the snow...you wouldn't be able to see him?" Harry asked out loud, he slowly turned to see Ron's, Seamus', Neville's, and Hermione's look of horror on their faces. Harry's face slowly turned into a blush and he was inwardly horrified himself. _'Did I honestly just suggest thinking about Malfoy naked? What the bloody hell was that?_ ' he screamed.

"Erm...I mean, like, figuratively..." he dragged on.

"Mate, you're looking a little peaky today," Ron commented dryly, as if trying to make any kind of excuse for Harry bringing up their rival classmate.

"Yeah, maybe you want to go see Madame Pomfrey before class starts?" Hermione suggested, playing along with it.

"Er, I'm fine thanks guys. Just...tired," Harry lied, fighting the blush off his cheeks and tearing his eyes away from Draco.

It took all of Harry's will power to not glance back up at the blonde the entire meal. His mind kept running over all his physical features and he kept on thinking how utterly different and much more...flawless Malfoy seemed compared to the day before. Harry scorned himself for these thoughts and shook them out of his head. ' _Who cares, he's still bloody Malfoy. An insufferable git.._.'

' _He's not really that insufferable. And not much of a git. He hasn't really insulted you that much this year...he seems to be growing up,'_

 _'Yeah well he's still Malfoy_!' Harry snapped back at his inner voice, but he couldn't help but understand his own reasoning. He reckoned that he never really hated Malfoy more than their House rivalry. Malfoy believed in keeping Wizarding blood untainted, which Harry could understand in some respects and that was their biggest of differences. Harry collected his school bag on cue, keeping his eyes down at his feet and as faraway from Malfoy as possible as he followed Hermione and Ron out of the Great Hall, ignoring Ginny who was still sitting and waving at him with a large smile on her face. The truth was, Harry honestly didn't even notice her attempts at getting his attention.

They walked down to the dungeons and as Harry rounded the corner a little quicker than anticipated he ran smack into the person he was trying very hard  _not_  to think about. His books fell to the ground as did Malfoy's, and Harry scurried to his knees in a deep blush to pick them up.

Malfoy was looking down at him momentarily struck still until he slowly bent down as well, his hair fell in front of his deep grey eyes which...Harry looked up at them and audibly gasped. Those weren't the eyes he remembered Malfoy having.

They were a lot more narrow, more long, very drawn out and looked like pure, liquid silver. Harry was suddenly captivated. Draco held his gaze firmly, though he didn't portray any emotions on his face as Harry's mouth lay open. Slowly bringing himself back to reality, Harry was a deep crimson colour now as he quickly gathered his books. When he stood up Malfoy stood up at the same time and was looking at him pointedly. There was no scowl or malice on his face.

"Er, sorry about that Malfoy," Harry mumbled an apology and then went to shove his books back into his open, over-filling brown shoulder bag.

"Accidents happen, Potter," was all Draco said with a slight eyebrow raise.

' _Look away! Look away! For Merlins sake, Harry, **look away**_!' Harry screamed at himself and finally tore his eyes off of the strikingly blonde boy in front of him and down at the last book he was holding. It read 'Advanced Arithmancy,'. "I'm not taking Advanced Arithmancy," he said rather dumbly as Herimone and Ron watched gawking at the scene. Draco calmly held his hand out, the one that held the Malfoy signet ring he never took off. ' _How did I know he never takes it off?_ ' Harry scolded himself again for noticing too much about the boy who was supposed to be his rival next to Voldemort and Snape. "Oh, oh!" Harry snapped in attention, realizing that he was holding onto Malfoy's book. He quickly handed it over but as he did their hands brushed gently.

Draco's eyes went extremely wide and he found himself uncharacteristically fumbling to put his book back into his own bag. "Er, class. Going to be late," he merely said and then turned on his heel and stalked off towards the Potions classroom among the throng of students.

Harry did something wholly unexpected then and raised his hand in the air to a wave and yelled, "Happy birthday, Malfoy!" across the crowd, the blonde stopped in his walking slightly to cock his head towards him in utter confusion but then Pansy Parkinson was at his side, linking her arm with his and leading him into the classroom.

"What the bloody hell was that?" Ron snapped at Harry as the three friends stood dully in the corridor.

"Er...nothing, just kinda lost my footing and my books..."

"Not that Harry," Hermione rolled her eyes, "What was that between you and Malfoy?" she asked suspiciously and Harry quickly shrugged it off, putting a blank mask over his face.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Now let's get to class before Snape can deduct points before the lesson even begins," Harry said and at the thought of it his two friends quickly concurred and followed him inside.

They all filed in and were about to take their usual seats as faraway from the Slytherins as possible, but they seemed to already be occupied. Grudgingly the trio had to sit in the line that divided the two Houses. Which wasn't good for Harry, who was sitting right behind Malfoy. His eyes went bug-eyed but he quickly calmed himself and concentrated on taking out his notes and turning his textbook to the right page. They were working alone that day because the result of their potions would be intoxicating to personally each of them, by wafting off one specific smell that attracted them the most.

Harry felt uncomfortable brewing this potion in such close vicinity to Malfoy for reasons he couldn't quite explain, but he tried his best to shove the Slytherin from his head.

Malfoy didn't seem to be having a good day either, even though he had still received quite the number of gifts during the morning post, he was stiff and silent. He had grown over two inches through the night, his hair was thicker and silkier than before, and his eyes had drastically changed shape and colour. His skin was oddly sparkling in a way that even captivated himself, but he had no idea why nobody, especially Pansy, hadn't commented on it yet. It was simply driving him mad.

The class brewed their potion for the next two hours. Harry sat staring downward the entire time, scared to look up and caught in a staring contest with the back of the Slytherin's head as he successfully kept any thoughts at bay. Malfoy was sitting stiffly paying close attention to his own potion. ' _This could help me locate my mate_ ,' Draco thought to himself, knowing full well that the scent that would attract him the most would be his mate's scent.

In the last five minutes of class most of everybody's potions were reviewed by Snape, who sourly granted Harry five points for making it absolutely flawlessly. Harry smirked at that and ignored the Slytherin glares, though he was surprised when he didn't get one from Malfoy who stayed seated and staring forward at his own concoction.

Harry leaned into his cauldron to give it a big long whiff, he was really curious as to what the smell would be. Hermione's was always freshly mown grass. Ron's was something about melted chocolate. Harry leaned in and smelled and immediately a dreamy expression washed over his face like most of the other students. He smelt something floral, something like perfume and roses...Lavender. Yes, he decided, definitely lavender with a slight dash of vanilla. Just how he came to that conclusion confused him, but he shook it off to smell more of the potion.

Thankful that they were allowed to keep samples, Harry took a large one and corked it in a vial that he slipped into the safe pouch of his bag. "So, what was yours?" Ron asked curiously as the class was beginning to pack up.

"Lavender and vanilla," Harry said with a shrug, Hermione giggled at it and Ron raised his eyebrow but nudged Harry playfully and let it slide.

"Draaaco...what was yours?" Harry heard Pansy Parkinson whine, he turned around as Ron and Hermione packed their bags to watch Pansy leaning on Draco who was scowling down at her.

"Nothing," he said sternly and she gave him a questioning look, "I swear it Pans," he rolled his eyes and threw his shoulder bag on, "Nothing. At. All. Maybe I'm not attracted to anything," Draco said icily, but the look on his face held just as much confusion as his fellow Slytherin. Harry believed him when he said he hadn't smelt anything. And then Draco felt himself being watched and snapped his attention in Harry's direction, the brunette was immediately caught in a staring contest again. Draco's eyes seemed a lot...softer than usual, as he looked at Harry and found himself locked in. They just stared until Ron accidentally knocked into Harry which shook him out of his stupor and he glared downward at his shoes with a hint of pink on his cheeks.

Harry began to walk out of the Potions classroom but as Draco swished by him quickly, his cloak billowing and his hair flowing past his face, Harry got the strongest scent of lavender and vanilla.

His heart stopped in his throat. Harry decided that the best place for him to go was to the library; he had some questions that needed answering and some research to do.


	3. Strange Un-Interaction

_"A sensation swam through his veins, all over his skin and his only coherent thought was...emerald,"_

Harry found himself leaning against the door opposite of the Prefect's meeting room on the Fourth Floor. His hands were in his trouser pockets, his cloak rolled up to his elbows and his hair a mess more than usual.

He had spent all day in the library amongst towers of books, finding nothing in particular that pertained to any information he needed to find. Of course he squeezed in studying for finals that were coming that next Monday, but the nagging thoughts of Draco Malfoy's drastic changes seemed suddenly more important to him. He had read through Potions, spells, hexes and glamours that could do that to a person and came up with absolutely nothing that would result in permanent physical enhancements over night. He had been near breaking point after skipping lunch, for Harry had been at his research for over three days straight now.

His eyes were weary and red, he hadn't a proper nights rest. He still couldn't understand why - why it felt so important to him to get to the bottom of it. It didn't matter, the only thing that did was that he finally felt a purpose - even if Malfoy was at the centre of it.

The door across the hall creaked open, Ron was the first to come out clutching onto Hermione's hand looking entirely bored. His face lit up as he met Harry's weary one, "Mate, what're you up to?"

"The library's closed and I thought it'd be best to clear out of the Common Room...Dean and Seamus got their newest shipment from your brothers," Harry said pointedly to Ron who was grinning now.

"So, what did the boys decide to send 'em this time?" Ron cheered, but his smile fell when Hermione nudged him hard in the ribs.

"Ronald! They better not have used any Dungbombs again!" she shrieked, yanking on Ron and pulling him towards the staircase down the corridor.

"Mione, where are we going?"

"We are Prefects, Ronald. We just came out of a meeting for _being_ Prefects. We have to go stop Dean and Seamus before it gets out of hand...whatever they're doing. It's our job," Hermione scoffed, pulling and then turning towards Harry who automatically shook his head.

"You guys go on ahead, I think I'll just fancy myself a walk. I promise to be in before curfew," he said with a half-hearted smile and then his best friends were off. He didn't quite enjoy the thought of going back to the crowded Common Room, he always felt too muddled in there.

Turning in the opposite direction, Harry was struck still as he found himself almost deserted in the corridor. Except, of course, for the last person coming out of the Prefect meeting. Malfoy was slowly closing the door behind him and his back seemed to stiffen, he took a deep shuddering breath and turned towards the boy standing stark still behind him. "Potter," he said through clenched teeth, facing Harry now who was staring wide-eyed at Draco.

Harry had made a point to ignore Malfoy the best he could for the past couple of days, at least until he knew more about why he seemed so physically different. He hadn't seem him up close since that Potions class on Thursday and as it was now Saturday, Harry took a minute to allow his eyes to rake over Malfoy's body. The blonde shifted uncomfortably and tore his own eyes from the Gryffindor standing there, practically gawking at him.

"Is there anything I could help you with?" Draco drawled, attempting to keep his cool stature as best as possible, though for reasons unknown to him his skin was crawling.

Harry's eyes slowly raised from Malfoy's feet up to the boys eyes, where they met with that liquid silver again. Draco looked back into those eyes beneath the rounded glasses and all he thought was...emerald. A sensation swam through his veins, all over his skin and his only coherent thought was...emerald.

"Er...right, going..uhm.." Harry stuttered and then scurried away. Just like that he was gone.

Draco was left standing curiously in the corridor. _'What just happened?'_ he asked himself, turning on his heel to slowly stroll down towards the Slytherin dungeons.

' _So Har-Potter. Potter was coming to pick up Weasel and the Mudblood from the meeting...but then why wasn't he with them? They weren't there, were they? Then he just...left like that and...oh Merlin those eyes_ ,' Draco groaned inwardly, feeling very up to face palming himself but he refrained as he was entering the Slytherin Common Room. Eyes followed him, but more than usual. He looked like the cool, beautiful exterior Malfoy's usually always did. But for some reason Draco could definitely sense more and more people were taking notice of his genuine physical nature, his much too flawless skin. He shuddered at the thought that people were going to find out the Malfoy's really weren't pureblooded, per sey. It would fault the entire reputation he loved and spent years building.

He brisked past the students and into his Common Room. Ever since his birthday on Thursday, things seemed to be falling apart and it was only Saturday and he thought he was going insane. He couldn't keep his bloody mind off of those eyes, those deep emerald eyes. They were the exact colour he spent the nights dreaming about since his inheritance kicked in.

' _Maybe Potters your mate_ ,'

' _No bloody way in hell is that true, there is no way that could ever happen. Fate doesn't hate me that much, does it?_ ' Draco asked himself. He felt paranoia itching in slowly, the mere thought of Harry Potter being his mate...Harry Potter dating a Malfoy! Harry Potter rejecting Draco Malfoy and that unkindly leading to Draco Malfoy's death due to the fact he isn't a Wizard but really he was a Veela? The Daily Prophet would really go insane with the headlines on that one.

"Malfoy," Blaise greeted slowly from the entrance of their dormitory, he was leaning against it with his hands in his pockets. In some lights, Draco thought Blaise reminded him of Harry but as he took a closer look...there was no way that this Slytherin could ever have those eyes... _'What the bloody hell are you on about?'_ Draco screamed at himself and shook his head gently.

"Zabini, what do you want?" he snapped lightly, strutting over to his school bag lying on his bed and taking out a piece of parchment, quill and ink.

"Just inviting you to the party, of course. Nott convinced some of the Ravenclaws to smuggle in some Firewhiskey from Filch's stash, we're getting together with them and a couple of Gryffindor's in the Room of Requirment," he explained, lifting up a hand to slowly brush the hair from in front of his face.

Draco sneered at him, "Ravenclaws I can understand, but Gryffindors? Has all your standard gone out the window, Zabini?"

"Now, now Draco, we must learn to play nicely with them...they can come in handy every once and awhile," Blaise winked and then chuckled darkly, "Anyway, they really aren't all that bad some of 'em. I think if it weren't for the Patil twin and Brown constantly on Seamus' case, I'd really like him and his mate," he smirked, "Do you think that they go both ways?"

"Merlin, Blaise! Honestly, please grow some standards! If you are going to go for a Gryffindor make it a good looking one!" Draco snapped, he really didn't like where this conversation was going. He distracted himself by setting up on the one study desk the boys shared in the corner, he laid out his parchment and prepared to write a long awaited letter to his Father.

"Hmm..." the wheels in Blaise's head were turning as he stalked over to stand behind Draco who sat as stiff as a post, "And who, pray tell, would be a good looking Gryffindor to go for then, 'eh?" he purred seductively, leaning close behind the other boy and placing a hand on Draco's back. The blonde shrugged it off and sneered, "Potter?"

Draco's eyes went comically wide and then he softened into his cold mask once again, before Blaise could realize anything, "With his lack of fashion sense and total inability to bathe by the looks of his hair...if I were to go for a Gryffindor I would go for..." Draco paused for thought. Well, there weren't any other Gryffindor's to go for really, not in their year, anyway, "Wood,"

"But Wood doesn't go here any more, that's no fun," Blaise frowned.

"Zabini, why are we even talking about this? These are Gryffindors, we are Slytherins. Don't cross the line, it's a little too disturbing on the other side," Draco drawled now, dipping the tip of his quill in the ink and pretending to not be listening.

"Fine then, come up and join the party if you wish," Blaise shrugged and then left Draco alone in the silent, cold boys dormitory. Draco began to write.

_Dearest Father,_

_Thank you most graciously for the gifts you and Mother sent me on my birthday, I have not yet to tell you how happy they make me. That new set of winter cloaks will look absolutely smashing at the Parkinson's Gala this New Year's Eve, that is if we still plan to attend._

_I am quite excited to have exams done and over with, I would really appreciate to be back at the Manor after living in these filthy dungeons for the past few months. I do believe that Dumbledore, the old coot, is getting too soft on his dealings with the House Elves, they are not cooking nearly as well as they should be. Alas, this is neither here nor there._

_As you have anticipated, I did come into my inheritance upon my birthday. Though I am rather perplexed as to why nobody seems to be making any comments on the difference in my physical appearance. I have grown considerably taller, my skin seems smoother and whiter. And my hair, for the love of all that is Magic, Father, my_ _hair_ _is absolutely defying every charm known to Wizard kind! Gods, I cannot get it to lie flat and still, it wants to just...fall everywhere! You know how I feel about my hair, Father, I simply cannot go on like this much longer._

_I am having a difficult time attempting to locate my mate. I have been keeping the signs you have told me in mind, and the book has been slightly helpful - thank you for sending it along with my presents. But every time I try to locate my mate I am brought to this insufferable prat that keeps getting in my way._

_I would greatly appreciate your help in this matter, I do understand mating season is not too far off and I would prefer to get this over and done with before then. I understand the repercussions of being a single Veela during those trying weeks and I cannot allow myself to succumb to that and I do not think you or Mother is quite fond of the attention our family would be receiving. So any other books you could find that would not be accessible at Hogwarts, please do send them as soon as possible. If it helps you any, the only clue I have to locating my mate is the colour of emerald. I am not sure what to make of this, but perhaps you can make sense for me._

_Something I would like to add, for I am having trouble figuring out why this occurred. The other day in Potions we brewed Euphoria and the result of which is supposed to attract you by your most desired scent. I did not smell a thing and Severus assured my Potion was brewed to perfection, so I am inquiring why this could happen. Is this something because of my blood that would still the effects of the Potion?_

_Please help me in anyway you can, Father, I am becoming rather tested lately by these trials. Send my regards to Mother._

_Love your son,_

_Draco._

_P.S. Can my mate be somebody that I absolutely loathe and detest?_

_Dear Draco,_

_It is good to hear from you, we had expected a sooner reply but this will have to do. Severus does inform me that you are doing exceedingly well in your studies, please do keep up the phenomenal work, we are quite proud of you. Mother is off to France until Christmas Eve, but I assure you she will return by the time the holidays come around. When she returns, I do believe she will be more than excited to assist you in your search for your mate._

_I do sincerely apologize about the troubles you are having with the sudden effects of your physical nature, and as to why nobody has noticed is all in that book we sent if you had read it all. When a Veela is around their mate, even in the same general vicinity, all of the Veela's magic and attraction powers are directed at that one person only and therefore they are only affected. That must be what is happening here, though I do question as to why your mate has yet to respond to the natural call of being with you. By this time you should have seen some sort of forceful attraction._

_Perhaps it will be simpler to locate your mate when the other students vacate for the holidays. Of course we would never ask you to stay over Christmas at Hogwarts, but I am asking of you to stay until Christmas Eve. Then you will have time to explore and see if any of the leftover students are your mate. As well with that, in those few free days you shall have Severus, he has agreed to give you lessons that I know will help you._

_They are scent seeking lessons, and here you will be taught to locate your mate's scent as it has been embedded inside of your soul sort of like an imprint. Once you recognize that scent, it should be rather simple to follow the scent to them. Though the scent training is basic and applied magic, it will take at least two or three weeks to be validated as the right smell that you acquire._

_As for why the Euphoria did not work, it is a simple answer. A Veela is attracted to their mates smell and brewing a Potion is a false way of becoming One as a whole with your mate. There are ingrediants within Potions like that, that neutralize the Veela's senses. I know it does seem cruel and unusual to make this quest more difficult, but alas that is the way it is._

_In concerns to your last question, you cannot be mated or even attracted to somebody you loathe as a Veela. You are mated with somebody whom you admire, appreciate, and respect and as well as the other pieces such as fitting perfectly together. Your magical cores will match and there will always be an instant connection. Your mate will be somebody who you are close with, somebody who you can always connect to, and somebody who has for your entire life drawn your attention to them by simply walking in the room. Do think on this last piece of information, try to figure out a list of people who fall under these ramifications. For we know now that your mate is at Hogwarts, the trouble is finding out exactly whom._

_I do hope lessons with Severus helps, see you in a few days, my son._

_Love,_

_Lucius Abraxus Malfoy._

Draco sighed and reread his Father's letter a few times. It was now Monday evening, he had just finished his first bout of exams and his head was pounding. Draco had read the entire book his parents had sent him called ' _Being Veela; The Ifs, Ands and Buts_ ', and found nothing of great use in there except explanations for his physical feelings. The constant migraine's since his inheritance is a result of not being with his mate and they will not lighten until he is.

Draco found himself daydreaming a lot those days, wondering what it would be like when he did find his mate, when he connected with them. He expected sparks to fly, a fire to egnite, and everything inside of him to become a complete whole. But for some reason, he knew he didn't have that kind of luck.


	4. Civil Conversation

_"Every time I think, see or hear Malfoy I can't stop...argh! I am not attracted to him. No way in hell am I attracted to him!"_

"Hermione do you, er, gotta minute?" Harry asked nervously, wringing his hands together behind his back as he stood in front of the bushy-haired girl curled up on the couch finishing an Advanced Runes essay.

"Of course, what's up?" she looked up from her text with a small smile, but upon seeing Harry's screwed up face she noticed that this was a little more serious than 'How's the weather' kind of conversation. "Harry...what's wrong?" she asked tentatively.

"Erm, can we go for a walk or something? Somewhere more private?" Harry asked, looking pointedly around the crowded Common Room.

"Of course," she said at once, putting away her things and leaving them on the couch before following Harry out of the portrait hole. "Where's Ron? Does he need to hear this, too?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Oh, er, it's not like that or anything I just have a quick question of curiosity," Harry said too quickly as Hermione eyed him as they started off slowly down the Seventh Floor corridor.

"Well, you see, I was wondering if...is there something that can change somebody on their birthday? I mean, I know this sounds so strange but, could you suddenly change over night completely just because of your birthday?"

"Change, how so?" Hermione asked slowly, having absolutely no clue what the boy was on about.

"Physically. And I mean this pretty drastically. Like have a few inch growth spurt, an inch or two longer hair, perfect skin, completely different absolutely beautiful eyes that just look so...breath-taking and exhaustingly wonderful and entrap-" Harry stopped himself with a horrified blush on his face, ' _Why does this keep happening!_ ' he screamed to himself, ' _Every time I think, see or hear Malfoy I can't stop...argh! I am not attracted to him. No way in hell am I attracted to him. This must have something to do with his changes, maybe he's poisoned me.._.' even as he thought it, he didn't believe it.

Hermione was staring oddly at Harry now, she had never seen her best friend act like this before. "There is...something," she began slowly, rummaging through all the knowledge she had crammed inside of her head.

"Yes?" Harry urged quickly, and then smiled over at her apologetically.

"Some magical creatures are still considered Witches and Wizards," Hermione began to explain, "and a lot of them don't come into their natural powers until they reach a very specific age. Though, it is quite rare now due to the dilluted bloodlines that exist these days, these creatures are known to drastically change on their seventeenth birthdays. It is called coming into their Inheritance, almost like a rite of passage," she said and then noticed the sudden look of realization that dawned on Harry's face. "Harry, what are you up to? What's this all about?"

"Hermione, I wish I could tell you but you'd probably think I've lost it," Harry admitted rather truthfully with a new spring in his step as they finished making one lap around the Seventh Floor and they were back at the Fat Lady's portrait hole.

"Harry, have you been sleeping lately?" she asked wearily, there were big bags underneath his eyes and he did seem much less energetic than usual - which wasn't much in the first place.

"Er, exams and all," Harry shrugged, "Anyway, better be getting down to the Quidditch Pitch. Practice is about to start, can't have the Captain not showing up, now can we?"

All the way down to the Quidditch Pitch, Harry was scolding himself for never thinking of just asking Hermione that in the first place. It would have saved him quite a few days of muddling through ancient texts in the library with Madame Pince and Ron constantly questioning the rhyme to his reason.

' _It makes so much sense now. Malfoy has to be some kind of...creature. Well, I guess that doesn't really make sense, does it? The Malfoy's being a magical creature? They're more pureblood than anybody else in this school! It just doesn't add up...none of it does_ ,' he continued going over what Hermione told him in his head about this inheritance thing, which frankly he had never heard about before.

The entire Gryffindor Quidditch Team was awaiting their Captain's arrival, Harry apologized quickly with a blush to his absence ignoring Ron's wavering eye on him. "Alright then, this'll be our last practice of the year so let's enjoy it, shall we?" he chirped, attempting to sound happy even though his own thoughts were elsewhere.

"Enjoy it? Bloody hell, it's freezing cold out here!" Katie Bell protested immediately.

"Yeah, and we've got the last of our exams tomorrow!"

"Yeah mate, Potions exam...with Snape!" Ron reminded him, it was evident that not really anybody wanted to go on with practice that night but alas they were still there and ready.

"Alright, alright, quite your whining!" Harry barked playfully with a small smirk, "Now, I want you all up in the air before I blow the whistle!" he said, but the team was slow to move up into the air and Harry took his own time to find the whistle tucked within his robes. He blew it and stalked over to the case of Quidditch balls. He held the Quaffle and immediately Ron and the three Chasers came over to Harry and he threw it up in the air as they hovered slightly above him.

"I want you four to practice the Hawkshead Attacking Formation. I know this isn't going to make any of the Slytherin's back down, but we'll get the other teams with this one! Just remember, it's all in the attitude! The fiercer you look, the more intimidated the Keeper - that's you Ron - will be to even go anywhere near the Quaffle!" Harry explained, they all nodded and tried their hardest not to groan inwardly. The Hawkshead Attacking Formation took a lot of speed and energy out of them, they all feared having to do it for the whole hour of practice.

"Dean and Seamus!" Harry called, they were the two new beaters, "I want you two to absolutely perfect the Dopplebeater Defence! Don't forget to also throw in a couple of Bludger Backbeats and please stay away from the Chasers this time we don't need another accident!" he ordered. The players were immediate to begin, and Harry knew he should be releasing the Snitch for himself to do laps of catching and releasing it again. But his head was in the clouds today and nobody seemed to say anything about him just hovering over their practice, going slowly from side-to-side of the pitch, blanking out.

' _Alright lets make a list_ ,' he proposed inwardly to himself, ' _What has changed about Malfoy since his birthday?_ '

' _His hair is longer. He grew a few inches taller. His skin is so sparkling...so perf-stay on topic! He seems paler than before. More filled out, not as lanky. And then there's his eyes. His eyes are completely and utterly different. They're so narrow and silver, they're not that dull grey any more and..._ '

"Mate! Aren't you gonna practice, too?" Ron yelled from the goal posts, the three Chasers were readying themselves for the Hawkshead Attacking Formation a third time on the other end of the Pitch.

"Er, right. First lemme..." Harry fumbled on his broomstick and took out his wand, pointing it to his throat and casting a quick Sonorus spell, "Chasers I want you to switch over to the Woollongong Shimmy for the rest of practice, Beaters I want you to practice a Reverse Pass of the club at the highest speed you can, just put the Bludgers away for the rest of practice..." he trailed off, lifting the spell and putting his wand away.

Harry hadn't noticed at first, as his thoughts had been too consumed by Malfoy, that it was rather cold that Thursday evening. The wind nipped around his face and his cheeks were bright red, his nose slightly runny. Ignoring the heightened winds, Harry decided at least practising one move would probably be good for him. He readied himself on his broom, ignoring the others practising their moves around him, and searched for the Snitch, it was over by the unused Goal Posts hovering near the middle. He ignored it, for the whole intention of this next move was to feign off where the real Snitch was.

Taking a deep breath, since he only had done this successfully once before and it was a difficult move, Harry began to plummet downwards as fast as he could. He urged forward on his broomstick, his shivering hands clutching the wood as he pushed into a complete vertical nose dive. The wind whipped fiercely around now and he felt like he was about to be jolted right off his broomstick, but he ignored it and kept on pushing downwards, fast as he could, hurtling towards the ground.

Harry was nearing the pitch, it was immensely close. He wasn't aware that all others had stopped playing and started to watch him and then he found a sudden calm wash over him. He looked across instead of down and found himself staring at the supposedly empty bleachers. And then he saw a head of white platinum blonde hair, almost blending in with the snow. His eyes went wide and he looked back down, just in time to rear up jerkingly away from the ground, levelling out and then jumping off his broom into the snow. He looked over at the bleachers and saw nothing.

' _Great...now I'm seeing Malfoy. I must be going nutters_ ,' he shook his head and took a deep breath to find that all of his teammates were on the ground next to him, smiling hugely and congratulating him.

"Er, what's this on about?" Harry asked confusedly.

"You just pulled off the perfect Wronski Feint! That things bloody damn near impossible, and a death wish mind you!" Ron clapped Harry on the back with a goofy grin. 

"Oh, yeah well...luck," Harry shrugged, that warm sense of calm that had washed over him was suddenly gone and he had no explanation for it but he felt...alone.

"Right then, off to the showers then, good practice! Enjoy your holidays, guys!" Harry said, ending abruptly and turning away from his confused team mates and walking through the snow to the exit of the Pitch, Ron wasn't far behind him.

"That was brilliant, Harry. You're an absolutely brilliant flyer," Ron said bashfully.

"Oh shove off, Ron," Harry nudged him gently, "Listen I'm off to the library to study for Potions tomorrow,"

"Again? Gods, Harry, you've been in the library all the time lately! It's like you're...you're...turning into..."

"Don't say it!" Harry cut him off, knowing he was going to be compared to their friend and her own crazy study habits and rituals. "I just - I dunno, it's Snape. Don't need any more reasons for him to fail me," he shrugged nonchalantly and him and Ron walked silently up to the castle, their brooms still in hand. They walked up the stairs until Harry reached the floor with the library and he turned sheepishly to Ron.

"Could you just-" he began, but Ron had already snatched Harry's Firebolt from his hand with a small smile.

"Course. Just don't spend too much time in there, 'kay mate? See you back upstairs in a few," Ron said and was off down the corridor. Harry thought the redhead was probably more than happy to be returning without Harry, because that would mean having some alone time designated to Hermione.

Harry felt much more relaxed as he entered the library, because this was the one place where he could let his thoughts run wild on the subject of Malfoy. He went over the list of physical appearance changes in the seventeen year old boy again, mulling over what Hermione had told him about inheritance. He approached Madame Pince who was sternly fumbling in her filing cabinet behind the counter.

"Er, good evening Madame Pince," he greeted her, she looked up at him under her pointed glasses.

"Mr Potter, may I help you _again_?"

"Er," Harry blushed and looked down at his shoes, "I was wondering if you had any books on inheritance,"

"Inheritance? Well I must say that anything of that such matter isn't in the Hogwarts curriculum..."

"Is it Dark Magic?"

"Heavens no, it's natural magic," she quickly answered, "I just haven't any idea why you would want to read about it - it's not the most intriguing of subjects,"

"Let's just say I've got the Hermione-bug," Harry joked, the librarian tightened her lips but didn't ask any further questions as she took a spare bit of parchment and jotted down a couple of notes on it and handed it to Harry.

"This is all we've got on that, I'm afraid," she said, handing him the slip of paper.

"Thank you," Harry said, taking a look down at the author names on it and then finding his way to a table near the back. He slid off his cloak and draped it on the chair, rolled up his sleeves and went off to collect the books.

Two hours later, not too long before curfew, Harry had all the information he could handle for one night. He hadn't learned much more from what Hermione had already told him, all he had learned is what kind of inheritances a person could have. But there was no way for Harry to specify it in terms for Malfoy, because they all just described 'physical appearance differs' as a symptom of coming into ones inheritance.

There was Vampire inheritance, Giant inheritance, half-breed Centaur, half-Mer inheritance, troll, anything! Anything that was a magical creature, a regular wizard could have the blood of it inside of them and come into that sort of inheritance on their seventeenth birthday. The definitions of which weren't very particular. Harry decided what he needed to do next, he needed to narrow the symptoms. He needed to get close to Malfoy and he needed to figure this whole thing out before he went completely and utterly raving mad over the holidays thinking about it.

The next morning, Harry woke up feeling much better than he did most days. He had no explanation for this, as he awoke and immediately showered and got ready for the day. He only had one examination that day, and it was to brew the Living Draught of Death in Snape's dungeon. He had studied for it, in between researching inheritance, but not nearly enough as he knew he should have. Oh well, Harry somehow believed he'd do just fine.

He awoke Ron and waited patiently for him to get ready, too, and then the Trio went off down into the Great Hall. For once, they were one of the first ones there. Harry automatically looked across the Hall at Malfoy's usual seat and saw that he wasn't there yet, but there wasn't even food on the table since breakfast still wasn't due for another five minutes. Hermione didn't seem to have a problem with this, as she was rambling on about the things they needed to know for the exam that day and Ron looked just about ready to go back to bed.

Finally, after a few minutes of impatient waiting, the person Harry had been waiting for walked into the Great Hall with his usual posse in tow. Harry smiled, unable to stop it curling up on his lips, as he watched Draco stroll into the Great Hall. He noticed the stride in the blonde's step falter and then his silver eyes snapped towards Harry's direction, Harry was caught surprised by this and felt himself tinting pink again as their eyes met and he was vaguely aware of his smile still being on his face.

It made it look like he was smiling at Malfoy. And he might have been, Harry really couldn't tell at that point whether or not he was smiling at the Slytherin or just smiling because he wanted to smile. The few students in the Great Hall were looking between Draco and Harry, as they were locked in a staring contest.

Harry finally broke out of his stupor and raised his hand in the air as an awkward sort of wave to Malfoy, who slowly and awkwardly raised his own hand and waved back - both now had the look of pure dumbfounded confusion on their faces. Harry didn't even seem to notice the way Pansy and Blaise were exchanging incredulous, confused looks just like Ron and Hermione.

"Er..." Harry began slowly, and then he took a deep breath and pulled together all of that Gryffindor courage of his and stood up from his table. Malfoy and his group were still paused near the doorway, nobody wanting to move until Malfoy did who stayed rooted to the spot as Harry shakily approached him. Hermione and Ron were watching with their jaws dropped down to the floor.

' _Breathe, Harry, just breathe. You have a plan. Don't worry. You're a student, he's a student, so what if he's Malfoy. Just breathe, and talk to him. Breathe_ ,' Harry kept repeating in his head, but then all coherent thought walked out the front door when he was now standing in front of Malfoy, close enough to reach out and touch him. Malfoy was staring into Harry's emerald eyes with his liquid silver ones, so many questions racing through them but not one reaching his lips which were slightly parted, drawing Harry's attention to them and then back up to Draco's eyes.

"Erm, what are you doing for the holidays Mal-Draco?" Harry thought he better milk this the best he could whilst he was doing it anyway. His eyes, however, were already doing what they were supposed to, scanning the persons body in front of his for any more of the obvious changes.

Draco shifted the weight on his feet and ran a hand through his hair and if anybody looked close enough they could see that it was shaking nervously. "Going back to the Manor. We have quite a few Balls to attend to," he replied carefully after a moment. 

If the people in the Great Hall weren't completely and utterly astonished, they were now as they all watched quietly as the two stared at one another.

"What about you, Pot- _Harry_?"

Harry thought he was going to melt on the spot as he heard his name come out of Draco's mouth like that. He had never really heard him say his name before and he suddenly came to the conclusion that he liked it. "Er, staying here. Cozy and all," he said, blushing furiously with his own words.

"You would think people were more mature than this," Draco drawled, suddenly allowing his mask to fall into place as he gathered himself, standing up straight and looking down at Harry who looked up curiously.

"What d'you mean?" he asked.

"It seems that every time you and I attempt to have a conversation in the Great Hall, corridors, class, wherever it may be we are having said conversation, everybody stops what they are doing and listens to us. I mean, no wonder we are not on civil terms, Potter, when we both have so much pressure on us to always do something ridiculous around each other," he was smirking now, as the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs immediately looked away in shame and embarrassment, not wanting to be caught doing exactly what Draco had just explained.

Harry found himself smiling largely, his hands in his pockets as he felt more comfortable and at ease now, he rolled back on the balls of his feet. "Yeah well, what can you expect?" Harry smirked and then he had seen it. He had seen exactly what he had been looking for. A mark. Any sort of mark that told him what he needed to know, and he saw it right there just above Draco's right ear. A pure silver hair. Not platinum blonde like the rest of his hair. But pure silver. Harry's smirk widened, "Have a good holiday, Malfoy, see you around," he said and then turned on his heel and stalked back to the Gryffindor Table where food had appeared since he was last there.

He sat down and began piling food onto his plate, ignoring the Slytherins battering with Draco at their own table and promptly ignoring the looks he was getting from Ron and Hermione. "What? You're looking at me like I've grown a third head," Harry muttered as he began to cut up the eggs on his plate.

"Harry you-I-Malfoy-what..." Hermione stumbled over her words.

Harry shrugged it off, "Is it really that big of a deal that I said happy hols? I mean, he hasn't been such a git this year and I thought I'd give that House Unity thing a try. What better than me and Malfoy talking civilly in public? I thought it'd blow everybody's knickers off," Harry lied easily, concentrating more on his meal than on Ron's disgusted and confused face.

"Right, well, makes sense I guess," Hermione said slowly before looking towards her own breakfast, "Just strange to see is all," she added in. Harry shrugged again, glad she didn't seem to be asking any more questions than that.

Ron, however, wasn't having any of that as he stood up from the table and glared down at Harry with his finger pointed to the Great Hall doors, before he stalked out of them he ordered Harry to follow him by simply saying -

"You. Me. NOW."


	5. Can't Get You Outta My Head

_"All I know is that I need to stop being distracted by Draco, and those bleeding eyes of his..."_

Harry slowly woke up, he groaned lightly and his eyes fluttered open. He could tell immediately by the white ceiling that he was in the Hospital Wing. He slowly brought himself up onto his elbows, rubbing his eyes and then reaching for his glasses on the bedside table. He put them over and was met with a very stern and upset looking Hermione.

"How are you feeilng?" she asked tightly.

"Er, fine," Harry said, he really didn't feel bad at all. Why was he even here? "What, uhm, happened?"

"You don't remember?" Hermione asked confusedly, and then scoffed and rolled her eyes, "Ron and you had a fight,"

"Like ah...oh, right," Harry's face went still as it dawned with the memory.

_"You. Me. NOW!" Ron had then turned on his heel and led the way out of the Great Hall, Harry not far behind as Hermione gawked at her boyfriends rash behaviour._

_Ron had brought them to just outside the entrance way, into one of the courtyards where the snow was magically removed from but still little flakes of it fell down on Harry's face. "What the bloody hell do you think you're playing at?"_

_"What are you talking about?" Harry asked, trying to act stupid._

_"Malfoy! Think you can just go up and consort with a Death Eater! That's fraternizing with the enemy!"_

_Harry rolled his eyes which didn't seem to be a good thing as it made Ron growl in frustration, "Listen, Ron honestly it's proven Lucius can't be a Death Eater any more and no matter how much of a prick he is...his son is different. Haven't you seen how much D-Malfoy has changed this year? He's not so much of a git any more so I thought I'd give those inter House relations a shot," he shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets._

_"He's still a Malfoy! I don't bleeding care if he's a Slytherin, which is bad enough as it is, but a Malfoy! He's made our lives living hell for the past six years-"_

_"No, Ron, VOLDEMORT has made MY life living hell for the past six years, not Malfoy! He's just been a little thorn at the bottom of my foot, not the big dagger staked into my head," Harry jabbed his finger at his scar heatedly, where did Ron get off like this thinking he could just explode because Harry was talking to somebody?_

_"Harry, don't even start...he's made me feel like shite for my family, he's made things worse for you when you don't need it and he always called 'Mione a-a...a you-know-what!" Ron hissed now, unable to say the derogatory term._

_"The key thing is, Ron," Harry snapped, "That all of that is in the past. People can change,"_

_"People can change, but blood can't," Ron was whispering lowly now, his face inches from Harry's and flushed with anger._

_What he said stung something deep in Harry, he recalled his hours of research on inheritance and all the importance of blood. Blood was so important to Draco, he had made that much clear over the years with his Pureblooded bullshit and his Malfoy pride. But through Harry's research, he was beginning to understand it all. It was important, because it made you who you were. It was even more so important to Draco who had just come into his inheritance, which was something the boy couldn't help as it was natural magic as Madame Pince had said. Harry suddenly didn't like Ron's judgement on the whole matter, even if he didn't understand that Draco had just received his inheritance like Harry was so certain of._

_"You're right, Ron. Blood can't change, and that's the whole point isn't it? But honestly I still don't see why we shouldn't give Draco an equal, second chance," Harry said through gritted teeth._

_"Draco?" Ron spluttered and Harry winced at the malice he heard, "Now you're calling him by his first name? That insignificant, insufferable, prat, ponce, complete and total arsehole, begotte-"_

_Ron didn't get to finish his sentence as Harry had had enough, he hit Ron across the face. Hard. His fist connected with the side of his cheek and his head snapped sideways and then quickly turned back to Harry with murderous eyes. And then Harry remembered pain in his head and then everything went blurry._

"Is Ron alright?" Harry asked Hermione quickly who huffed at the name.

"Yeah, he's aside himself with worry for knocking you out but he's still not too happy about this whole...Malfoy business," she said carefully, not wanting to tug on any more strings.

"What business? I have one little conversation with the guy and it's like the world's going to end!"

"Now Harry, don't get upset. I have no problem with you speaking with him on civil terms, I see it as a giant step for maturity. However, I can see where Ron's coming from,"

"You can see..."

"Hold on a minute, let me explain," she held up her hand, stopping her friend from talking with a weary expression, "Ever since Ron was born he was taught about two kinds of Purebloods. There were families like his own, that accepted and embraced Muggle-borns, and then there were Purebloods that tortured and killed Muggle-borns. I know this is a rather drastic thing to be telling a child, but trust me the Weasley's did just that. In the form of fairy tales, the boogey man type of thing. It's the way Pureblood children are taught what is right and what is wrong, but a little more truthful. When he grew up, he grew up with his Father facing many inquiries at work due to Lucius Malfoy. His whole entire family grew to loathe the Malfoy's because of their wealth, status and the way they treated Muggles and half-bloods. You of all people should know that even if the Malfoy's aren't working for Voldemort, doesn't mean their values have changed..."

"It doesn't mean Draco wants to torture and kill Muggles!" Harry harshly cut her off, she raised an eyebrow at the use of the boys first name but said nothing of it.

"I know that, Harry, but the point is Ron isn't so sure. He told me he felt really bad about the way he acted, but to him it was the only natural response. You know how he is, look what happened back in Fourth Year," Hermione reminded him softly, Harry rolled his eyes at the mere thought of it, "Now Madame Pomfrey told me to tell you to take this," she handed him a vial of clear potion, "To help with any headache, she refuses to heal your black eye because she thinks it'll teach you a lesson,"

"So-Ron's okay with it then? I mean, if I say hullo to Malfoy he's not going to blow a gasket or anything?"

"He said he was willing to give him a shot, in his own way of course. He said he didn't want to talk to Malfoy, but he wouldn't stop you from doing it. Although I would refrain from doing so often, just in case. Any ways, he's up in the library," Hermione explained and watched as Harry downed the Potion and swung his legs off the bed. He hoped the black eye wasn't too bad and if it was he could just put a glamour over it.

Harry and Hermione started off in an awkward silence towards the library, "Parkinson didn't seem in a much better mood than Ron about you two talking," she commented.

"Really?"

"What, does that surprise you? Even if Malfoy's willing to play nice, the rest of the Sltyerhin's still hate your guts and you have no idea what their alliances are. Malfoy's really playing with fire, talking to you like that in front of them...what if it gets back to You-Know-Who?"

"His name, 'Mione, is Voldemort," Harry said wearily, rubbing his head. He did have a bit of a headache, but he believed Madame Pomfrey's potion to be doing its wonders.

They had reached the library and Harry was becoming nervous about meeting with Ron, who sat by one of the windows looking out of it sore-fully, his face rested in his hands and he heaved a big sigh. Harry took a gulp and walked over there with Hermione, sitting down across from him as Hermione sat next to him.

Ron turned immediately to Harry and then let his eyes fall on the wood of the table between them. "Hi," Harry said slowly.

"Hey," Ron replied uneasily.

"How's the...uhm..face?" Harry asked, flushing.

"Better than your eye," Ron tried to joke, but failed miserably, "I mean, not bad. A little bruised and all but...I didn't mean to hit you that hard, it's just, I just, and Malfoy and I was so angry and...oh, Harry I'm sorry," Ron gushed and then his eyes were burning a hole into the table top.

Harry chuckled at his best friend, the same redhead who had been there for him for six years. "It's alright, Ron. Really, I'll just have to hone up on my bad boy image for the next couple of days with this shiner," he joked, smirking lightly across the table.

Ron looked up with a hopeful smile, "Be careful with that, we don't need Lavender trying to slip you another love potion," he grinned.

Harry groaned, "Oh Merlin please no," he said as Hermione stared at them slack-jawed.

"Boys. I will never understand boys," she whispered, shaking her head and getting out her Trasnfiguration textbook to get working on her assignment. Harry and Ron grinned largely at one another before taking out their own homework and getting started.

It was over three quarters of an hour later that Harry was deathly bored, his mind had far trailed away from his homework as he sat scribbling on his barely filled parchment. He drew loops and circles around one another as he leaned, bored, on his hand, his brow furrowed and biting his lower lip.

He still couldn't get Malfoy out of his head. The whole point of talking to him in the Great Hall was to get more information out of him and Harry had done just that. He had such an urge to ditch his homework and do his research then and there, but didn't want to risk another row with Ron if he told him just exactly what it was he was researching. His friends were under the impression that he kept going to the library to do school related work.

' _His hair. He had that silver strand in it that has been notified as a trait in only a very few, rare magical creatures. So that really narrows it down. All I have to do is read up on those few, and I should be able to figure it out from there and then..._ ' Harry trailed off, his eyebrows further scrunching up, ' _...and then what? Do I approach him and tell him that I know? What is all of this going to get me any way? All I know is that I need to stop being distracted by Draco and those bleeding eyes of his_ ,' Harry scolded himself.

"Oi, what you thinking about?" Ron asked, nudging his best friends foot under the table.

Harry gave quite the start and jumped in his chair and then blushed at both of his friends attention on him. "Draco," he said before he could catch the word that left his mouth, thank god he was a mumbler and Ron didn't seem to hear. But Hermione's wide eyes said otherwise.

"What was that, mate?" Ron asked again.

"Playdough...I was thinking about playdough," Harry fumbled over his words, but Hermione didn't look convinced.

"What's that?"

"Erm, Muggle toy, nothing really...sorry, best get back to work," Harry mumbled, unwilling to look up from his textbook now to meet Hermione's inquiring eyes.

Down in the dungeons, Draco was sitting by the fire in the Slytherin Common Room. He was supposed to be reading up on his extracurricular Potions study, but he just couldn't seem to concentrate. His headache was getting worse everyday, the inward feeling of absolute need to find his mate was increasing.

He felt them somewhere in the castle, he felt their presence and their warmth blanketing around him but he still had no idea how to even begin tracking a feeling like that. Draco wished that Veela could choose their mate, though he understood fully well why they couldn't. Still, it would have made life a lot easier and he would not have to worry about finding his mate by Springtime when mating season came around.

Then there was this whole business with Potter. Draco, no matter how hard he tried, kept thinking about Potter. He had enjoyed his classmates mollified expressions of confusion and dislike at the two of them speaking civilly to one another and honestly it hadn't been that bad. Potter was an ultimately good human being, though insufferably unintelligent when it came to matters of loyalty, trust, forgiveness and Potions. Draco thought that the boy was too emotional and gave himself away too easily, which is why it made the Dark Lord's job even easier than it already was.

Draco sighed, why did everything in his life either come back to Harry Potter or the Dark Lord? Then there was these physical changes, these new awakening powers that he did not quite understand yet. He knew that when he found his mate, he would be able to willingly turn on his powers and use them for seduction and lure, but how much use was that when he still had no blasted idea who his mate was?

On top of all of that, Pansy Parkinson was throwing a right fit about him and Potter talking to one another. Draco hadn't seen it as that big of a deal, other than the amusement he got from everybody's surprised expressions. But this girl was off the handle about this and Draco tried his best to ignore her which was difficult at times.

He knew none of this should matter because what did matter was that the holidays were only a day away and as his Father said he might be able to track his mate more easily. For some reason, Draco didn't think less students being at Hogwarts would help whatsoever.

Draco did have one thing to look forward to after the holidays, though. And that would be scent sensing training with Severus.

If that couldn't help him sort of this whole mate business, Draco had no idea what could.


	6. Realizations

_"Watch out, Malfoy. I'm coming for you,"_

_'Veela powers are extremely volatile, dangerous and magnificent all at once for these creatures can ensnare the minds and souls of all persons just by one glance. These powers do not discriminate against age, sex, preference or blood (see 'Veela Mating Muggles' for further referencing). Every Veela's powers differ to form a unique creature, but they all posses the same general effects._

_Upon reaching the age of inheritance, seventeen, the Veela will grow two to six inches in height. Their fingernails and hair will also grow as well as whiten with their skin (this varies dependent on their original skin pigmentation). Yet, the most common and obvious physical trait is the narrow, silver eyes. Along with their physical changes a Veela becomes extremely emotional and volatile, and almost unbearable hormonal and sex driven around their allotted mate. This usually occurs most noticeably and heavily during mating seasons. This is the first two weeks of the Spring Equinox._

_When a Veela first comes into his or her inheritance they have until the end of their first mating cycle to find their destined mate and bond with them. If they do not they will lose the will to live and perish within a month. That is why it is essential for a Veela to use their senses to lure and seduce their mate._

_A mate is chosen by the Veela's instinct and has nothing to do with the conscious mind. They will forever bind themselves to somebody they will naturally feel strongly for and will always be pulled towards one another. This is a mutual finding and can only be born by two souls already connected._

_Whenever a Veela is in the same vicinity as their mate, one cannot sense or see the powers or alluring traits. It is all directed at their intended mate, who has an equally overwhelming effect on the Veela. These magical creatures crave and yearn for their mate at all times and can become exceedingly dangerous when their intended is in harm's way._

_The simplest way for a Veela to find his mate are through the powers of scent and dreams. Potions such as Elixir of Euphoria and love potions will not affect a Veela, for it is neutralized to their senses. The second way to find their mate is that a colour or sensation is linked in their dreams that is an obvious correlation to their mate, ie; eye colour is the most common to see in a Veela's dreams (see a 'A Veela's Mate' for more references).'_

The passage ended there, Harry's eyes were comically wide and his jaw on the table with an astonished expression. _'No...this is what Draco Malfoy is...A Veela_?' He knew he couldn't believe this just on what he had read, so he had to read further. Harry quickly jotted down the books this particular passage in 'A Brief Explanation of Human-Magical Creatures' and set off to find them.

His hands were shaking uncontrollably as he leafed through the shelves, his heart was thudding in his throat and his mind raced with questions.

' _If he's a Veela...doesn't that make him a Half-Blood? Why doesn't anyone notice his changes? Is that why he's so pale? Has he found his mate? Does he even know about any of this? I wonder what his dreams are telling him? That must be why his eyes are so silver and...beautiful! But still, why hasn't anybody noticed besides me?_ ' Harry was too wrapped up in locating more books to put two and two together. He had four large, ancient looking texts in his hands by the time he sat down again in the back shadows of the library.

Harry eagerly leafed through the withered pages, taking notes at any mention of the word Veela. With each thing he read, he was becoming more fascinated, mystified and positive that Draco Malfoy most certainly came into his Veela inheritance. The most intriguing thing he came upon was the bit about Veela mating and the result of which could give birth to a set of wings, depending on the natural magical powers of the person before the Veela.

"Harry, there you are!"

Hermione and Ron entered the library with relieved faces, Harry fumbled quickly to put his books out of sight without looking suspicious. For a Seeker, he wasn't quick enough.

Ron snatched one of the books off of the table top upon seeing his friends quick reaction to their arrival, he scrunched his face up at the name and handed it over to an inquiring Hermione. ' _Thank God they didn't see my notes at least,_ ' Harry thought with relief, for he had unwittingly named his notes; What is Draco Malfoy?

"Veela? Why are you reading about Veela?" Hermione asked slowly, Ron looked equally as confused as she did.

Harry flushed and turned his attention down to buckling up his shoulder bag, it was obvious he had not only done enough research but he wouldn't be given the chance to do any more of it that day. "I er, had a conversation with Hagrid about them. He got me a little more than interested," he admitted.

"Well, I can see why. Who wouldn't want a Veela for a girlfriend?" Ron grimaced as soon as he realized what he just said and turned apologetically towards Hermione who held a murderous look on her face, "Of course, I'm more than happy where I am! I love my girlfriend. The most amazing girl in the world!" he chirped as Harry rolled his eyes at him.

"Is that why you have been coming to the library so often, to research Veela?" Hermione questioned, finally handing back the book who thankfully took it even with an ashen face.

"Erm, a little bit. I've also been researching some other magical creatures. It keeps my mind off of things," Harry said pointedly, hoping the allusion to Voldemort would stop his friends from talking.

Ron smiled apologetically, "Oh, well whatever keeps you happy. We were just worried, hadn't seen you all day! Not even in your bed this morning and you weren't at breakfast or lunch!"

"What time is it?" Harry asked perplexedly, he had been so caught up in his thoughts about Veela and Draco that he honestly had no idea how much time had passed since he had gone down to the library before breakfast.

"Dinner's in five minutes, mate! You must be starved!"

Harry's stomach grumbled precisely at that moment and he gave a sheepish smile, "Yeah, I guess you're right. Sorry for making you guys worry, but you should have guessed I was here first," he said, standing up from the table and following his friends linking hands out of the library.

"Yes well, we had not thought that you had once again come to the library," Hermione said, she wasn't used to being the one chastising somebody else for spending so much time in there.

"Yeah mate and with the hols starting tomorrow...just relax, won't you?" Ron offered gently, Harry shrugged and tried his best to smile but he couldn't. His mind was still absolutely reeling.

' _Draco Malfoy is a Veela. Draco Malfoy is a Veela. Draco Malfoy is a Veela. And nobody else notices but me. Nobody besides me. Nobody notices. Nobody. Besides me. That Draco Malfoy is a Veela_ ,' he repeated again and again in his head, his brow furrowed as he tried to further understand what the bloody hell was happening to him. He felt like his mind was being rather blissfully invaded by thoughts of that blonde Slytherin.

As the three sat down to dinner not longer later, Harry caught Hermione's attention when Ron was busy talking to Dean and Seamus. "Hey 'Mione, are you sure you don't notice any difference about Malfoy?"

Hermione eyed him wearily and then turned around to look over at the Slytherin Table where their Prince was eating and reading a book at the same time, he looked rather flustered. "He is a lot quieter than usual. Other than that, not a thing. Why?" she asked suspiciously.

"Er, no reason I just-no reason," Harry mumbled, tearing his eyes away from the almost glitteringly pale boy and back down at his meal. He had begun to think a few days ago that he was going nutters thinking about Malfoy so often, but now his head was starting to make sense of it all. Slowly, but at least he was putting together the puzzle pieces.

"Hermione...I don't think I've ever hated him," Harry whispered across to her, sending sly glances at Ron in assurance that he was still caught up in a separate conversation.

"Harry, what's this all about?" she hissed with concern.

"I mean, just listen okay?" Harry said nervously, he needed to share his thoughts with somebody else to see if they were at all plausible, "We got off on the wrong foot and we're both really temperamental. We both had two roles to lead in life, what's expected of us. It turns out he was let off the hook and all now and...I'm realizing that I don't think I've ever hated Malfoy and that he's never really hated me," he finished, biting his lower lip and stealing another glance at the blonde. His heart stopped when he realized Malfoy was staring back at him, their eyes locked and Harry felt the world slipping around him into nothing other than those silver eyes.

Hermione reached her hand across the table and gently touched Harry's arm bringing him back to reality, "I'm glad you've realized that. It'll make things easier next term and it shows you're really maturing," she smiled encouragingly, "Though I'm not too sure it'd be a wise thing to..." she looked over at her boyfriend and Harry nodded in complete understanding and smiled thankfully at her.

"Thanks, 'Mione, you're always a grand help," he said sincerely and watched her blush cutely and return to her meal.

Harry's eyes were once again torn away from his own plate and back across the Hall at Malfoy, who was still staring at him with an unreadable expression. "Hey Hermione, what colour would you say my eyes were?" Harry asked suddenly, tearing away from Malfoy again to his best friend.

"Hmm...I would say deep green. No, emerald. Yeah, I would have to say emerald, why do you ask?" she raised her eyebrow at him.

"No reason. Listen, I've gotta go, I'll see you guys in the Common Room later?" Harry said and without waiting to hear her response he stood up from the Gryffindor Table and locked eyes with Malfoy pointedly again and looked over at the door. Harry then left with his bag over his shoulder and strode out into the Entrance Hall, he only had to wait a minute  before Malfoy had joined him.

The blonde was standing very tensely, his arms across his chest and his eyes narrowed at Harry. But there wasn't any malice on his face, or any hatred, there was interest, confusion and something else Harry couldn't quite understand, "Malfoy... _Draco_ ," Harry corrected himself and took a deep breath and shifted uncomfortably on his feet, "I'm doing a, erm, Divination project," he began but was quickly cut off.

"You didn't take Divination this year," Malfoy responded shortly and then opened his mouth as if to say something else but promptly closed it.

Harry smiled amusedly, Malfoy knew his classes. "Er, right, well then that's the lie so do you want the truth?" he blushed as Malfoy merely looked over Harry's entire body before back up to his eyes and nodding slightly. "I was doing some research on dreams in the library," Harry said, fumbling out another lie. There was no way he could just say the truth in case all his assumptions were inaccurate, "And I, er, was wondering what you've been dreaming of lately," he mumbled, looking down at his feet as his hands were shoved in his pockets.

"Potter, I have no idea why..." Malfoy began but took a deep intake of breath and steadied himself, he remembered their earlier civil conversation and thought for an inkling of a second that maybe Harry was being truthful this time. ' _What is the harm if I am truthful too?_ ' he thought. "I don't dream like I used to," Malfoy admitted slowly, "But now I only dream of one colour," he blushed having already admitted that much.

"Really? That's...interesting," Harry said, trying to hide the obvious excitement as his assumptions were being proven right, "What colour? If I may ask," he said finding a little more confidence in his voice this time.

Malfoy caught Harry's eyesight and locked them together, they stared blankly at one another and Harry felt the corners of his mouth twitch upwards into a smile. "Emerald," Malfoy said firmly, "I've been dreaming of emerald," and he was surprised at the way Harry's small smile turned into a large, sloppy grin. He was also taken aback at how much he suddenly yearned to touch that grin with his own lips. Malfoy took another deep breath and composed himself in that cool manner of his.

Harry, however, was beaming horrifically now. "Thanks, Mal-Draco," He said with another smile, "I've gotta go now but...thanks again! I hope you enjoy your holidays!" Harry said smiling as he then took off up the stairs and towards Gryffindor Tower.

It all had fallen into place, the pieces clicked together and all made sense. Harry was pacing in the Common Room now, the memory of all his research coming fully back to him now. ' _I'm Draco Malfoy's mate. I'm a Veela's mate. He loves me. I love him? I guess I really don't hate him...and he really is good looking...well...I guess that means I'm...Bisexual?_ ' Harry was confused now, for even if he had figured out the puzzle it was still an odd one to look at. Suddenly all the implications of being Draco Malfoy's mate hit him full force in the head and he fell down on the Common Room couch, mentally and emotionally exhausted. His mind kept wandering back to a pair of silver eyes and he remembered something one of the texts had said about Veela's, ' _They love unconditionally, and their mate is most important above all else_ ,' Harry smiled at the thought of somebody feeling like that for him. He had never imagined something like that to happen in his entire life.

Suddenly, he felt that this wouldn't be so much a bad thing whatsoever. It would mean somebody would always love him and be there for him, and that he would be there for them too. Now all he had to do was tell Hermione and Ron. And, of course, convince Draco Malfoy who has been too obviously avoiding the call of his mate. Harry smiled brightly at this. ' _I'm Draco Malfoy's mate. He's been fighting it but...he can't. It's in his nature...and I don't think I want him to fight it. I think I need to make him give in_ ,' he was smirking mischeviously now. ' _I have all two weeks of holidays to come up with a plan_ ,' Harry said resolutely, just as Hermione and Ron joined him in the Common Room.

"Mate, you alright?" Ron asked immediately, curious as to why he had just left the Great Hall in a rush.

"I'm fine. I'm great actually, rather wonderful," Harry said with confidence, looking at both of his best friends as they sat down in a shared armchair across from him with looks of concern, "I-I have something to tell you though," he said with a blush.

"Go on then, what's up?" Ron urged.

Harry took a deep breath. He might as well come out and say it. Or at least say what he could without infringing other peoples rights to privacy. "I-I'm bisexual...I think..." he trailed off. Could he even really consider himself that? He only liked one person really, and he didn't even know if he liked him. He just knew he liked the way he looked, the way the corner of his thin pink lips drew up into a breath-taking smile, the way those narrow silver eyes bore into him and seemed to know and understand everything the way that...

"Well that's alright mate!" Ron chimed with a goofy grin, "Just as long as it's not me...or Hermione," he added with a wink.

Harry visibly recoiled, "Ew, yuck mate. No offence, but _yuck_ ," he shivered theatrically for the effect. Hermione, however, was eyeing Harry in a completely different way. She knew something was up and she was curious as to whether or not it had something to do with Draco Malfoy. Shrugging it off for now she sent her friend a consoling smile.

"Up for a game of Wizard's Chess?" Ron asked.

"It has been a while since you've embarrassed me," Harry smirked, "I'm on," he smirked. For some reason, as Ron ran upstairs to find his Wizards Chess set, Harry felt like everything would be okay. He felt that this entire Veela situation, really wasn't bad. In a way, it was something he had always wanted. Somebody who could relate to him, understand him, love him unconditionally, and somebody he could rely on and love right back.

And then he smirked devilishly and thought, ' _Oh yes...things are going to get quite interesting when you get back from your holidays, Draco._

 _Watch out, Malfoy. I'm coming for you_.'


	7. Scent Sensing

_"Why 'ello, Malfoy, fancy that..."_

The holidays passed without incident and it also gave Harry a lot of time to think about all this new information. He had begun day dreaming about Draco constantly; his hair, how smooth his skin must be, how his lips might feel. And with each realization that Harry told himself he was infatuated with Draco, the more comfortable he became with it all. There were no more doubts in Harry's mind that the Veela had to feel the same way about him and he was confident in his plans. He just needed to wait until the perfect time. As he sat across from Ron and Hermione, Harry was once again caught up in staring at Draco from across the Hall. It was the first day back and term was beginning with a double dose of Dark Arts.

Across the Great Hall during breakfast, Draco couldn't keep his eyes on his meal. He had gone back to the Manor for his holidays and prepared himself thoroughly for scent finding his mate. His head pounded the entire time he was home and it was only eased when he returned to Hogwarts where he knew his mate was residing. But now, as he sat down for breakfast, his stomach churned and he felt dizzy. He leaned his head down on the palm of his hands, he couldn't take much more of being apart from his mate. He needed to figure out who it was, and when he did...he had no plan and all he knew was that he needed to ravish them. Draco felt such a strong pull towards them, but he still couldn't decipher who it was.

And then there was Potter. He was staring at him constantly from the Gryffindor Table and Draco couldn't help but allow his eyes to trail up and meet those beautiful jewels of emeralds. He conveyed no emotion on his face, but he was captivated by those eyes and lost in them for minutes at a time before him or Harry tore away from one another. They did this at least every two minutes and Draco was becoming thoroughly unnerved. It was just something about Harry, when they looked at one another, something about his presence seemed to ease everything inside of Draco.

"You got Dark Arts too this morning, Malfoy?" Blaise asked, pulling Draco's attention away from a certain Gryffindor and across his own table to the handsome Zabini.

"What's it to you?" Draco snapped, he didn't feel like talking. Or being distracted from the only thing that calmed the pounding in his head and retched churning in his stomach.

"Don't get your wand in a knot," Blaise hissed in response, "I was just wondering if we could walk to class together is all, I do believe we are the only worthwhile of our lot in it," he said motioning to the other Slytherins.

"Crabbe, Goyle? You're not going?"

"Not this term," mumbled Crabbe before devouring a few more sausages. Draco turned his gaze on Pansy who lightly shook her head and he sighed.

"I guess it's just us then," Draco said and then his eyes travelled back up to the Gryffindor Table where Harry was staring pointedly at him again, "Us and them," he whispered.

"Us, them and the werewolf," Zabini hurumphed, "Honestly, what kind of school is that old crook running here? Having a werewolf half-breed teach our classes? _Again?_  I think we should get somebody who actually knows the Dark Arts to teach us how to defend them,"

"Too right," Draco agreed quickly, but he honestly didn't care. All that mattered was that he had Double Defense Against the Dark Arts class and the Gryffindors were going to be there, including Potter.

As breakfast drew to a close, Draco walked side-by-side with Blaise up the stairs of Hogwarts. "Do you think we'll be able to use our wands this year?"

"Well, now that the Umbridge cow is gone I am rather certain of it," Draco said reassuringly, they all had missed real Dark Arts classes where you got to practice what you learned.

"Near the back then?" Blaise suggested as they came into the familiar classroom, nudging his head near the seats at the back of the class. Draco shrugged, he really didn't care. They took their seats as the rest of the students slowly filed in.

Draco didn't even have to turn around to know that Potter just walked in the door, he felt it and he heard his low chuckle amongst his best friends. He heard that Granger girl giggling as well, but he didn't care for that, Harry's small laugh resounded in Draco's ears like a beautiful musical tune he found himself mystified by.

He watched the Golden Trio from the corner of his eye as he took out his own book, parchment, quill and ink and set it up for class. He also placed his ivory wand on the table, the light wood constrasting against the darker desk. Draco observed the way the three Gryffindors settled themselves at the very front of the classroom, Hermione sat across the isle with Pavarti Patil, she was clambering on about something or another as Ron and Harry were chuckling again. Harry took out his things and then gently excused himself, the redhead merely nodded.

Draco's breath caught in his throat, ' _No, he isn't coming back here...is he?_ ' and his heartbeat began to speed up as Harry neared the back of the classroom. He locked eyes with Draco and strode lazily over towards him, his robes slightly wrinkled and his hair unkempt as always. Draco noticed that from this distance, the boys rounded glasses were lopsided and didn't quite fit his head right.

"Potter, your glasses are all..." Draco trailed off and scowled, he didn't know exactly how to describe the mess that the pieces of metal were in. Harry grinned loosely, his green eyes were mirthful as his hands rested lazily in his pockets and he eyed downward at Malfoy. ' _Why is he standing here? What does he want with me?_ ' Draco wondered, but he didn't feel too bad about the situation. The headache had completely disappeared and his stomach unknotted itself.

"Just was making sure you had a good holiday," Harry piped cheerily, "And did you?"

Draco was caught off guard but he kept his mask firmly in place, but something in the other boys eyes told him that he knew so much more, "Just brilliant," he bit on his own words, "Yours?"

"Fabulous. Did a lot of, er, researching,"

"You found a library, good for you," Draco sneered, crossing his arms and leaning back in his seat and raising an eyebrow. He knew he had to keep up his appearances and Potter didn't seem to mind his flippant mood.

"Right then, see you later," Harry beamed and nodded dimly towards Blaise, "Zabini," he addressed curtly before turning on his heel and striding back to his seat.

"What does that tosser think he's up to?" Blaise hissed under his breath, but Draco merely shook his head and concentrated on the lesson as their Professor strode in with a light limp.

"Good morning, class!" Professor Remus Lupin chimed quickly, a small grumble of a response was heard. But Draco noticed that Potter was absolutely beaming up at the ragged man, and the Professor winked down at him. He grew curious as to the full extents of their relationship.

"Today we will be finding your magical aura. When that is found, you will seek out the one who has the same as your own, or at least the closest to it. You might feel a natural pull towards the person with an aura close to your own, and I ask that you do not deny this no matter who the other person is," he said firmly, everybody nodded dimly, "Now can anybody tell me why we might be doing this Divination exercise in this classroom? Yes, Miss Granger?"

"Because, sir, if we are to do spells, hexes and other magic with a partner who has a close magical aura, we will be evenly matched, sir," she finished with a small smile.

"Exactly. We will be doing practical lessons every other class, and learning the spells that we will theratically be using the lesson before that. It is important that we are evenly matched, we wouldn't want anybody getting hit by the force of a hex too strong for one to repell with their own defenses," he took a deep breath and surveyed the bored faces of the classroom, "Read pages 120-130 in your texts and this will teach you how to focus your inner eye and concentrate on your aura. Once you are certain of your own, do the exercise in which you can see others. You have until three quarters into the period and once we are all paired, I would like to start some practical review," he instructed and then with a slight wave of his hand, all of the students were quickly turning to the appropriate pages.

Draco wasn't exactly keen on this lesson, he feared being partnered with Longbottom or Weasley. That would do to ruin his image, if he had the same magical aura as one of them. Reluctantly he started off wtih his readings. It was pretty simple to be able to see one owns aura, it was just a matter of concentrate. Having already done this as a Divination exercise, Draco quickly found that his was a brilliant purple hue, light around the edges and darker the closer it got to his body. He was pleased with this, for it meant great strength in the offensive and not as much in the defensive.

Taking a deep breath and concentrating on all the others in his room, unfocusing and focusing his vision and try and catch a glimpse of their own colours. There was a small incantation one could do to make it easier, he lifted up his ivory wand and flicked it saying, " _Aurialias Reveala_ ," and he took a look around.

He saw that Blaise's aura was a deep navy blue, Draco looked curiously down at the notes in his book and read that this meant a natural balance. He was pleased that his mates colour wasn't ruby or pink, which in his opinion meant the person was an insufficient wizard. "Look, you're not a Squib," Draco commented dryly to Blaise who sneered at him.

"Shove off Malfoy, I think I've found my match," Zabini hissed, and he didn't seem too happy about who his match was either. Draco watched with eerie amusement as Blaise dragged himself up from his seat and towards the other end of the classroom to promptly sit next to Neville Longbottom, whose aura was a lighter, navy blue.

Draco continued surveying the classroom, taking note of everybody's auras. He wasn't highly impressed, but then the corner of his eye caught a brilliant purple emenating from the front of the classroom. He groaned, hoping to the Gods it wasn't Weasley. He picked up his wand and shoved it in his pocket and slowly brought himself to his feet, he stalked past all of the students looking at his own beautifully, purple aura and to the one whose matched his own.

He came face-to-face with a grinning Potter, who winked up at him, "Why 'ello, Malfoy, fancy that. I was wondering when you were gonna get your ass over here," he said, looking between both of their auras. They weren't even a shade off, they were exactly the same colour. Down to the dot.

Even Draco knew automatically that this was rare, for their auras to be exactly the same. He took Weasley's vacated seat and sat down next to Potter, attempting to ignore his goofy grin and the way his green eyes were lit up. Draco couldn't say he wasn't pleased though, for all uneasiness inside of him had gone away. "Hah, Ron's with Nott and he doesn't look too happy about that..." Harry whispered amusedly, leaning in close to Draco.

Draco looked over behind his shoulder and saw the definite dislike on both boys in question faces and smirked, "Serves them right," he merely said, and before Harry could ask why the Professor was standing in front of them again smiling.

"It seems we have all found our parnters, that's fantastic!" he beamed, looking between all the desks, "I would like you to spread apart from your partner and practice simple Tripping Jinxes, Boogey Hexes, and whatever else you learned last year that you are certain your partner is capable of deflecting. Simple Protego shields should work fine for most of the hexes," Remus explained, all of the students nodded eagerly. They just wanted to duel.

"But, before that I would like to draw everybody's attention to the front of the classroom please!" Remus said, looking down at Draco and Harry. Draco groaned, ' _Merlin please don't point out the fact that I'm so identical to Potter...merlin please.._.'

"We have a rather rare pairing here," Remus continued with a smirk, Harry was still beaming up at the older man, "Mister Potter and Mister Malfoy here have exact replica auras. Can anybody tell me what that means? Ah yes, Miss Granger if you would,"

Hermione was biting her lower lip at Harry and sending him an apologetic gaze but he shrugged it off, seemingly not minding the entire situation as Draco fumed in his seat, "Auras that are so closely match mean that the two Wizards are of equal strength and defensive skill, though not overall ability. They are quite...identical...to one another," she said uneasily, Draco was scowling at the desktop by this point as all eyes were on them.

"Exactly! Now I'm certain that whatever Mister Malfoy throws at Mister Potter, can be easily deflected. And the other way around. Now then, get right to it and remember...only things you have learned last year and nothing too harmful!" Remus pronounced firmly, and everybody jumped out of their seats and readied themselves.

Harry and Draco, however, took a little longer. Hexes were already flying this way and that, groans were heard and Remus' was bouncing from partner-to-partner fixing their stances, waves of their wand and incantations. "Scared Potter?" Draco drawled, slowly bringing himself to his feet and taking a firm grip on his wand.

"You wish," Harry flashed a brilliant smirk at Draco that nearly knocked the blonde off his feet right then and there, but he quickly covered up with his cool mask.

And then they began. Simple jinxes flew between them, hexes, curses, everything and anything the two boys could think about. Colours flew, sparks erupted, shields were thrown up every couple of turns, everything was deflected but after a half an hour the boys were beginning to sweat. Draco was smirking, he always enjoyed a good deal and at this point he was equally matched and he oddly found himself enjoying it more thoroughly.

Potter seemed to be having a great time, he was smiling largely and despite the sweat jumping into every hex as quickly as it rolled off his tongue. His power erupted and connected with Draco's, their magic caught and entangled mid air before dispersing and allowing them to start it all over again. It was energetic, colourful, magnificent, and they didn't even notice the entire class had stopped to watch them.

"Good... _hex_...form... _shield_...Malfoy," Harry panted with his teeth fully in his smile now, directed straight at Draco who shielded himself from Harry's Bat-Boogey Hex.

Draco tried to scowl in response, but he couldn't. He was just being complimented by Harry Potter, how could he not keep the smug satisfaction off his face? As Draco sent another curse at Harry, he was surprised with what happened next. Harry released his shield and without speaking a word, his Patronus erupted out of his wand and blinded Draco completely. A large stag burst towards him and Draco attempted to put up a Protego but wasn't quick enough, the creature was too bright and he was too surprised.

Without a word, once again, Harry sent a tripping Jinx Malfoy's way and the light disappeared and when it was gone, Malfoy was flat on his ass. The class was staring in awe between the two boys and Remus was chuckling and clapping his hands together, approaching them. "Good job boys! Good job! Twenty points to Gryffindor and to Slytherin!" he chimed, their classmates broke into grins.

"That there was a perfect example of how evenly matched one is...and how is it that Mister Potter won the duel?" Remus asked, addressing the still distracted class.

Harry wasn't listening to their Professor, he was smiling over at Draco who still sat sneering on the ground. He approached him and held out his hand, grinning, "Need a hand?" he offered, Draco reluctantly took it and stood up.

He felt their skin press tightly against one another and a jolt of excitement ran through his body and touched every single one of his nerves, Draco quickly withdrew his hand before he could really linger on the sensation. Harry was still smiling at him before turning to his Professor and paying attention.

"Harry used wandless magic to surprise Malfoy," Neville stated.

"Close, but no cigar," Remus beamed, "Harry here used wandless  _and_  wordless magic to surprise his opponent. This is a skill that is difficult to learn but can be achieved by few great Wizards, and it is exceptional that he used it in this duel. If you have a skill that can become your advantage, use it! That is the most important thing, use what you can!" Remus smiled over at Harry who smirked back, he allowed the class to continue on with their duelling but for the remainder of the period Harry and Draco merely sat back and watched everybody else, too exhausted to do anything else.

Draco kept his mind on that duel all day. Not so much the spell work or the fact that Harry could so easily perform wandless, wordless magic, but the fact that their hands had touched afterwards. The way that Harry had smiled at him, the way those green eyes lit up brilliantly, the way his skin tickled with unknown, amazing sensations when their skin brushed.

It kept him busy all day, and distracted from the rest of his lessons. Draco kept to himself, mulling over these feelings and also readying for that night. He was going to perform his scent-seeking skills he had learned from Severus over the holidays, and he was more than excited. For whenever he wasn't in the Great Hall or in some lessons, his chest pain increased so much and his head throbbed uncontrollably, it was getting to the point where all Draco wanted to do was crawl back into bed and sleep.

He was excited, maybe it wouldn't be so bad and his mate would be a good looking Ravenclaw bloke. Dinner seemed to drag on, and so did finishing up an Arithmancy assignment with Blaise in the library.

"What's wrong with you lately, Malfoy?" Blaise finally asked, setting down his quill.

Draco looked up from his homework and shrugged, "I'm not sure what you're on about, Zabini," he merely said as Blaise rolled his eyes.

"Oh c'mon! You have barely said anything all day, you didn't even seem mad that you were paired with Potter of all people in Dark Arts, and you just are so...off lately," Blaise explained, not really having any better term for it. He knew he was worried for the blonde, but he would never admit that. They had teased, taunted and fooled around with one another for the past six years, they were essentially best friends but they only showed it in the ways Slytherin's showed how they were best friends.

"At least I wasn't paired with Longbottom, Weasel or a Mudblood," Draco merely muttered before sighing and setting down his own quill. He couldn't concentrate on these mathematics any more, not with the anticipation of locating his mate that evening bubbling deep inside of his stomach.

"I think I'm done for tonight, Blaise," Draco drawled, standing up and collecting his things into his leather shoulder bag and brushing his platinum hair behind his ears.

"Down to the Common Room it is then?"

"No, you go on. I think I need to take a walk, clear my head," Draco merely said, and was glad that Blaise asked for no explanation but merely bid him goodbye for now. Draco found himself aimlessly wandering the halls for twenty minutes before he came out onto the Hogwarts Grounds. It was a cool evening, but not so bad. It wasn't snowing, hailing, or any of that bollocks and the sky was clear up ahead. The stars twinkled down and reflected off of the Lake, Draco strode over closer towards it and looked out over the frozen water.

He really did love the scenery of Hogwarts, no matter how much he might despise the Professor's and the level of teaching at the school. Draco always felt like he could have done so much better at a higher academic school such as Durmstrang, but with people like Blaise around, he was glad his parents forced him to come here.

Draco set aside his bag and pulled his cloak close to him, he took out his wand and did a quick warming charm on the area around him. He felt it immediately seep over his skin, and he stopped shivering from the cold. Draco crossed his legs underneath himself and closed his eyes, letting the silent wisp of soft wind soothe him into a nice, calm.

He needed to concentrate, to push all other matters from his head other than the deep innate feelings inside of him. So he searched, he searched beneath the brigade of false emotions until he latched onto something he found inside himself, something that felt very much like a want...no, a _need_ for another person. He held tightly onto that mental need and breathed in and out deeply a few times.

Then he did as Professor Snape told him to, and concentrated solely on that emotion of need and the sense of smell. He sniffed, multiple times he sniffed. And finally he got a whiff of something that wasn't there before. It was a musky smell, a strong odour of unmistakable male body sweat. But it wasn't just any body odour, it was  _his mate_ 's. He knew this automatically and his eyes sprang open. Something inside of him tugged hard at his being, at every single fibre in his body. Severus had described this is what would happen if it worked. That Draco would be yanked in the direction of the smell. So he grabbed his shoulder bag and allowed his feet to lead him where he wasn't looking, he didn't question but followed his intuition across the Grounds.

Draco kept sniffing and becoming more confident in his strides away from the castle and towards the Quidditch Pitch, lit up with the last light of sun as it set in the distance. That musky scent was becoming stronger, more intoxicating, it was making nerves around his groin react to it and he felt himself needing it. Needing to smell it so much more, needing to feel whoever emitted that smell.

Then as he became close, he realized that this musky smell was smothered in another kind of unwanted smell. It was floral, a sickly perfume of sorts, perhaps it was roses, but Draco wasn't quite sure. It was definitely a female smell smothering his mate's smell. His mate's! Draco growled deep in his throat, the creature in him automatically reacting.

"Who the fuck thinks they can touch MY mate?" Draco hissed angrily aloud, now he was stomping with a blurred vision to the Quidditch Pitch.

As soon as he was near enough to see what he needed, his heart stilled inside of him and the creature was raging. There was Harry Potter, his hands on Ginny Weasley's shoulders and gently pushing her away. Draco edged closer, they were sitting in the snowy stands and Harry had his broom in his hand. He must have been practising late night before curfew. Ginny looked pleadingly at him, he frowned in response. "Please Ginny, you know that I don't want this,"

"But Harry, why not?" Ginny whined, pushing herself forward again and her hand landed on Harry's thigh. Draco's blood boiled at this and he clenched his fists, trying his hardest to remain unnoticed.

"Because Gin...because there's somebody else...and you're, well, erm...not my type," Harry fumbled with his words, even in the sunset Draco could see the flush of pink on his cheeks of embarrassment and he knew it wasn't from the cold, either.

"What's wrong with me? Am I not good enough for The-Boy-Who-Lived?" Ginny yelled, standing up now infuriated. Harry sighed and stood up as well and looked down at her with soft, gentle eyes that melted her immediately.

"Ginny, please. You know that's not what I think and that's not what's happening here. There's just someone else..."

"Who is it then?" Ginny snapped, crossing her arms and tapping her foot.

"I-I can't tell you yet because they don't even know. And, erm, it's a  _delicate_  situation and...please Gin, don't do this," Harry was begging now, he didn't like seeing her hurt, "You're like a sister to me," He whispered, pulling the frustrated redhead into his arms and she sighed and hugged him back, all of her anger seeping out of her.

"But Harry, all I've ever wanted was to be with you..." she whispered against his chest, Harry was gently stroking her hair and embracing her. He didn't know what to say to console her, he was never good with these situations.

Draco was becoming more livid by the second, his body was shaking with anger he couldn't describe and he had no idea where the source of it was. All he knew is that he couldn't watch that Weaselette touch Potter any longer. He turned abruptly on his heels with a loud growl in his throat and he began to stalk back towards the castle with a murderous expression on his face.

"Malfoy?" Harry's voice called uncertainly and Draco didn't stop a second in his step as Harry hurried away from Ginny, running through the small layer of snow towards the blonde who was nearing the castle now.

"Malfoy! Come back, it's not what...Malfoy!" Harry had no idea what to say, but he knew what was happening to Draco and he knew he couldn't let it happen, "Malfoy! Draco! Please, Draco come back!" he called desperately.

But Draco wasn't listening, the blood was boiling so loud in his ears and his heart was racing with anger. Draco had disappeared into the entrance of Hogwarts and gone straight down into the dungeons to collapse on his bed, ignoring the faint calls of his name the whole way down.


	8. Isn't This What You Want?

_"Hmm...driving Draco insane is a lot more pleasurable than I thought it would be,"_

The first few weeks of term slipped on by with too many incidents to count. Ron was becoming heavily angered with the Slytherin Powerhouse team which seemed to be up and running once again. Crabbe and Goyle constantly flanked Malfoy's sides, acting as his personal body guard as the blonde seemed more vicious than ever. Harry, however, knew not to take advantage of the situation. He understood that Malfoy was inwardly infuriated with seeing him and Ginny hugging, touching and so close to one another. But in the way Malfoy insulted Harry constantly now, like it was Fifth Year all over again, Harry also understood that Malfoy was still in denial about who his Veela mate was.

Books had explained that Veela's were able to keep their mate unknown even to themselves if they had wanted to and Harry felt bad for him for this. He tried to stay out of the blonde's murderous path the best he could for a few weeks, hoping that he would calm down. But with everyday, he seemed to get more vicious. Even as a Prefect, he was taking points left right and center for anybody and everybody, even if they were a Slytherin. He was becoming recklessly dangerous, and Hermione was threatning him at Prefect Meetings with taking this to Dumbledore to have his badge removed. Malfoy, however, had none of it and would always respond saying the opinion of a Mudblood meant nothing to him.

Ron would rant about the blonde's ridiculous, venomous behaviour everyday. Harry, however, would merely stare sadly across the Great Hall and receive a scowl every couple of minutes from Draco. ' _Why can't he stop being so blind?_ ' Harry would ask himself sorrowfully. There was a need growing inside of him, to make Draco happy and to make that unnecessary pain go away. But he had no idea how to do it, the Veela inside of Draco wasn't vulnerable enough. He knew that mating season would be when it was most plausible to approach him.

Mating season or alone.

Harry's lips twitched into a smile at the thought. He knew that Hermione kept a schedule of who was doing Prefect rounds and where in her bag with her at all times. So one Wednesday night at dinner, Harry turned to her and asked to see it. "I don't see why, and I'm not supposed to show you..." she began slowly, but reluctantly took it out from her bag and handed it to her friend.

"I just wanted to make sure Quidditch Practice doesn't interfere with Ron's rounds," Harry lied easily, she smiled encouragingly at him and he looked over the schedule until he found Malfoy's name.

He was patrolling that evening alone, from 11-1 on the Third, Second, First Floor and the dungeons. Anthony from Ravenclaw would be doing the upper floors. Harry found himself smiling and handing back the schedule to Hermione, chancing a look at the Slytherin Table where Draco was glowering at him. Instead, Harry nodded his head in acknowledgement which caused the blonde to scowl even more. Harry chuckled and continued on with his meal.

' _You just wait until tonight Draco_ ,' Harry smirked to himself.

He avoided the hostile blonde bombshell the entire day, just as he normally would. He heard Ron telling about how Malfoy cursed a few lower years, absolutely drove a few teachers up the wall with his sour attitude, but Harry shrugged it off with a grin. He knew why and he couldn't blame Draco. Any Veela would be upset if they saw their attended in that close of quarters with somebody else. Now all Harry had to do was convince Draco that he was his and that he even wanted to be his.

It was half past eleven, the sixth year boys were fooling around in the Dormitory as quietly as possible so Hermione wouldn't come in and bust them. They were tossing around Fred and George's new treats, a couple of new Quibbler comics and chattering this and that about the useless as they usually did. Harry, however, was growing more anxious. He wanted to leave, to find Draco. He had his Invisibility Cloak tucked in his side and the Marauder's Map in his pants. Finally the boys decided to head to bed.

Harry felt thrilled as he walked through the empty corridors, just slipping past Anthony. He became more excited and determined with each step he took that led the way into the dungeons. Beneath the safety of his Cloak, Harry clutched the Map in his hand, calloused from Quidditch. His eyes scanned the Map every few minuets assuring him Filch nor Anthony were nearby.

As he came upon the Entrance Hall he found Malfoy leaning nonchalantly against the closed doors of The Great Hall. A small smile graced his peaceful features as his eyes were gently closed. Harry couldn't keep the broad grin off his face as he approached him as quietly as he could. Harry got so close he could hear Malfoy breathe and all he wanted to do was reach out and touch an angel.

Instead, Harry flung off his Invisibility Cloak in one quick movement. Malfoy yelped at a high pitch and jumped as his silver eyes widened in surprise.

"Potter, what the hell do you think you are doing? And tell me what just happened here!" Malfoy snapped, crossing his arms sternly.

Harry sniggered, "Just out for a walk,"

"Just out for a...was  _that_  an Invisibility Cloak?" he spat, reaching out to touch it but Harry slung it over his shoulder and out of reach, clicking his tongue.

"I've also got a Map that shows me where everybody is in the Castle...but that's neither here nor there...and no touching until Malfoy plays nice," Harry purred.

Malfoy was scowling deeply now, "Potter, I will take points unless you tell me why you are here,"

"Malfoy, why are you so..." Harry searched for the right word and then grinned moving closer to the other boy who took a step back into the wall, " _heated_ ," he breathed.

Draco's breath caught in his throat, he felt as though his heart had stopped. That warm breath, those gentle emerald eyes and oh Gods that addictive musky smell! Draco steadied himself, "Why are you out of bed this late Pothead?" he ground through his teeth, avoiding Harry's intense gaze.

"Well, to come see you of course," Harry said, as though that explanation was enough to satisfy. The two boys were close now, almost touching, Harry was peering upwards with such determination and Draco couldn't help but look back down. The blonde couldn't explain it, or more so he didn't want to admit it, why he felt so good to be this close to The-Boy-Who-Lived.

"I-I do not know what you are on about, but surely even a twit like you can comprehend what being out of bed after curfew entails," Draco hissed, but he couldn't muster all of the malice he wanted in that voice, it came out wavering.

"Hmm...I can only hope that I know what it entails, Draco," Harry whispered seductively, taking another step closer, now he was in dangerous territory. His abdomen was pushed up against Draco's, their heaving chests and fast beating hearts pressed against one another, Harry's face was on the side of Draco's cheek, his raven hair tickled the blonde's forehead.

Draco muffled a moan, having no idea where it came from. All he knew was that his body was vastly reacting to being this close to Harry. His groin grew and he feared that Harry might feel it, but the thing to make everything worse was that Draco could already feel Harry's own groin pushing hard against his upper thigh. Draco swallowed heavily, he felt that musky smell overtaking his senses and a supreme need for ravaging the boy in front of him. His mind was beginning to close up and his instincts were beginning to take control, he was breathing staggeringly.

"Potter I-"

"Shh, Draco. Call me _Harry_ ," he whispered, his lips brushing Draco's cheeks as his hands did something brave altogether and found themselves firmly on the others hips, holding him to the wall as he pressed up against him. Harry smelt the lavender and vanilla wash over him and a grin of satisfaction reached his lips. Oh yes, Draco was his Veela and he was his mate. Harry had not inquiries about this, he didn't want to hold back any more. He wanted to show him that they were each others and each others alone.

Harry gripped tightly onto Draco's hips and ground himself into the other boy who squeak in surprise, but then as Harry ground in one more time and their hardened members met in friction between their trousers, Draco moaned loud enough for it to echo through the Entrance Hall. Draco bit his lip and felt as though he was going to melt into the floor right then, but the firm hands on him wouldn't let him go. And Harry wouldn't stop doing that grinding thing! Draco's mind was lost in a fury, muddled in the other boys touch.

"Mmm...Draco, smell so good," Harry hissed pleasurably, leaning in even closer if there was such a distance between them in the first place. He ground harder now, making his movements more prominent as he entwined his left leg around Draco's right, bringing their bodies as close together as possible.

"Pot-Harry...why are you...why-why- _ooh_ ," Draco couldn't spit out a coherent sentence, and all the words he could say came out breathily. This urged Harry's movements on, and the blonde still couldn't will his body to react positively or negatively. He couldn't move, he didn't want to. He wanted Harry to keep doing that thing with his hips, he wanted their erections constricted by their trousers to keep rubbing up against one another.

"Why am I what, Draco? Isn't this what you want?" Harry hissed, pushing himself as hard as he could into the other boy as he ground him into the doors.

' _I know I shouldn't be doing this. But Merlin he just looked so beautiful. 'Mione and Ron would kill me but...I don't care. I really don't care. This is what feels right. I'm his mate, he's my Veela. All mine. This is where I want to be_ ,' Harry thought to himself, reassuring all of his actions and grinding into him once again and this time with more feeling.

"It's, it's, it's..." Draco fumbled, his words were shaky and he wasn't acting like himself but he couldn't just throw his mask back into place, not now as he hands were now moving. They placed themselves on the small of Harry's back and urged him on again, Harry ground into him one more time. "It's not what I thought I wanted," Draco finally said in all honest truth.

' _So help me Merlin my Father is going to hunt me down and murder me_ ,' Draco thought to himself, ' _Gods, is this really what I want? What does this even mean to me?_ ' but then he was lost again because he felt Harry's lips on the crook of his neck.

Harry kissed him gently and Draco's eyes shot open wide as an unexpected ripple of pleasure raked through his entire body. And then Harry deepened that kiss on his neck, he opened his mouth slightly and suckled at the skin there, his tongue swirled around it and he sucked harder. Draco was biting his lip so hard it bled now, he didn't want to make any noise to alert Filch to their whereabouts. Even if he was a Prefect, he knew that if the caretaker found them in this...compromising situation, good things would not happen.

"Do you like that, Draco?" Harry asked, breathing over the tender spot he had been kissing, Draco's only response was to moan lightly in the depths of his throat. He didn't trust himself to react any further than that. Harry smirked and began to suck on the same spot but harder this time and then his teeth nipped out and softly bit.

Draco's long, glass-like fingernails dug into Harry's back now and his legs were shaking. His knees weak, Draco was finally coming to his senses. What was happening?

' _I was doing Prefect rounds, and then Potter showed up. He just started, oh Gods...doing this and...mmm...he won't stop and it feels so...bloody-fucking-good!_ '' Draco thought and then he shook his head. No, that train of thought wasn't right. It couldn't be right. There was one reason it couldn't be right. For he was Draco Malfoy and the boy grinding into him, sucking his neck, was Harry Potter. He was Draco Malfoy. This was Harry Potter.

The thought rang through Draco's head and his instincts were firmly pushed as low inside of himself as he could, his hands released the other boys back and landed on Harry's abdomen and harshly pushed him off of him, Harry staggered and had a dumb look of surprise on his face. He quickly righted his cloak to cover his arousal, Draco did the same before glaring at him. But the glare didn't hold all the hatred he wanted, because he was looking into those big, round emerald eyes beneath those ruddy glasses.

"Potter, I do not know what you think you are doing, but certainly you must understand how beneath me this is. If you were getting that desperate, you should have asked Granger for a shag,"  _Or Blaise_ , Draco thought absently, recalling how the boy had suggested him to be a good looking Gryffindor.

"Draco, I- but I-" Harry stumbled, he had been taken back by this sudden reaction, he thought for sure this would work. For sure being alone at night, Draco would realize. Apparently the Veela was rather suppressed inside, under layers of a Malfoy façade.

Draco sneered at Harry and opened his mouth to retort but Harry calmly held his hand up and took a step towards him, Draco was about to back up but he was already flat into a wall, so instead he gripped his hand around his wand in his pocket.

"You can stop acting in front of me, Draco. I know you, I know what you are. And," Harry paused and took a deep breath, "I know why you're really upset. What you saw a couple of weeks ago at the beginning of term, it wasn't real. Ginny wants me, but I'm bent," he said, a light blush covering his cheeks but he still stood determined and staring straight into Draco's narrow eyes.

"I have no idea what you're on about, Potter!" Draco hissed, trying his best to compose himself but both boys knew his words were a flat lie. "And - and you! Ten points from Gryffindor for being out of bed after curfew and for...assaulting a Prefect!" Draco added, but he had tried to scowl but his attempts were feeble. They meant nothing, they sounded like nothing, but he needed to reassure himself that he was still a strong Malfoy.

"Is that it, then? You're just going to take points from me and hope that it'll convince yourself that I'm not your-"

"That is enough, Potter!" Draco yelled, his fists clenched at his side and his face hot with anger and confusion, "Don't make me take more!" he emptily threatened, Harry put his hands in his pocket and shrugged. "Detention this Thursday outside of Slytherin Common Room after dinner for...mouthing back!" he added, Harry raised his eyebrow at him and took another step to close the distance. Draco found his legs getting shaky again.

"Oh really, Draco? Detention?" Harry asked seductively with an elegantly raised eyebrow, "It's a date. Hopefully it'll be  _you_  who will be  _punishing_  me," Harry purred, he licked his lips for added affect and was pleased as Draco's eyes widened at the sight.

' _Hmm...driving Draco insane is a lot more pleasurable than I thought it would be_ ,' Harry thought to himself with a goofy smirk on his face.

Seeing as though Draco wasn't reacting, his mind and body stilled, Harry closed the distance on them completely again and pressed his body into Draco's and breathed hotly on his cheek.

"You can keep denying it if you want. You're mine, and I know what you are and I am coming for you," Harry hissed and turned on his heel, leaving the flustered, sexually deprived, befuddled, alarmed Slytherin Prefect in his wake.

Once Draco finally registered what he had just heard, he found himself utterly alone in the Entrance Hall. He used this time to collapse himself against the Great Hall doors and brought his knees up to his chest, his silver eyes were wide in ironic surprise. His head collapsed between his legs, his breathing ragged as images of what just happened kept flashing through his head and he had to will himself to sit still instead of running after Harry and ravishing him in the middle of the Hogwarts corridors.

Draco groaned, his platinum hair falling a mess around his pointed face. "Merlin help me. Harry Potter is my mate!"


	9. Moody Lessons

_"I could do it for you, you know. I'm rather good with...dirty things,"_

Harry awoke feeling odd. He didn't understand at first as to why, so he just dragged himself out of bed and gathered up his uniform he was going to wear for the day. He took a quick glance at his calender and schedule pinned up above his headboard and saw that he had Double Potions after Charms today. For some reason he couldn't quite explain, he didn't mind.

He made his bed neatly and left his heavy, red curtains drawn back and tied them around his four bed posts. He righted all the objects on his bedside table and placed his wand on top the clothes he was to wear. He ignored the soft snores coming from Ron's bed, knowing that the other boys were asleep, and he made his way into the bathroom to shower and get ready.

Afterwards, as he was brushing his teeth and not even attempting to tame his wild raven hair, his eyes went wide. "Oh Gods," he groaned as he stared flabbergasted at his expression, toothpaste dripped from his mouth as it hung open.

Sudden realization flooded over him as to what he had been doing last night past curfew. He had snuck out of Gryffindor Tower and for lack of better terms, completely ravished Draco Malfoy in the Entrance Hall. He had grinded him, he had kissed his neck and most definitely left a love mark! Harry groaned louder now, disbelieving he had even done this himself.

He understood that Draco was a Veela and that he was his mate, but to do something so drastic! Harry was beside himself with surprise and nervous curiosity, he was glad that Draco struggled so much to push him off. That meant all his assumptions were proved, he need not worry for his actions. But somehow, he still did. And guilt swam in his stomach as Ron joined him in the bathroom, Seamus closely behind.

"Mornin'," Ron grumbled.

"Er, good morning Ron, Seamus," Harry said, spitting out the last of toothpaste in his mouth before rinsing and quickly exiting the bathroom, unable to stay around while they got ready. Harry turned to Neville who was slowly getting dressed by his bed and smiled at the clumsy boy.

"If anybody asks, I've gone to the Owlry, I'll see you all at breakfast though," Harry said with a small smile, grabbing his book back and wand.

"Course, see you there Harry,"

As he walked his way through the stairs and corridors of Hogwarts, Harry's mind kept replaying the night before. He had never enjoyed a few minutes more in his entire life, that much was undeniable. His groin twitched with the memory of it all, and he knew he wanted more than what he had been got. He also knew Draco wanted it, asides from being a Veela, the hands digging into Harry's back leaving small red marks proved it all.

After visiting with Hedwig to clear his head a little bit, Harry made his way down into the Great Hall. At the Entrance doors, however, he had run into Draco. An emotion flickered across the blonde's face before his cool mask fell over it, Harry tried his best to smile up at him but it turned into a smirk, "Good morning Draco, sleep well?"

"Potter-"

"I thought I told you to call me Harry," he clipped, putting his hands in his pockets and rolling on the balls of his feet.

Draco surveyed the boy in front of him and couldn't help but be drawn in by everything he saw and smelt. There was no denying the inevitable for him, but he could still fight it the best he could. "Well, Harry, I do not see how my sleeping concerns you," Draco snipped before turning and leading the other stunned Slytherins into the Great Hall. Harry himself walked to the Gryffindor Table and joined his friends who were already seated there, loading their plates with a hearty breakfast.

Draco couldn't concentrate, and he knew exactly why. At least since he knew the explanation, he could attempt to avoid it. As he sat in his regular seat he forget to remember that he always automatically sat across from Harry. ' _How did neither of us, or anybody else, ever figure this out sooner?_ ' he drawled to himself, they had been rivals for years but their simple routines urged them to look at one another and be close to one another. Didn't anybody ever find that odd?

It was a difficult task to get through breakfast without looking up from his plate, especially since he felt those emerald eyes burning holes into his head. What was worse was that he knew he had Charms afterwards with the boy and then Double Potions, too! He prayed to Merlin Snape wasn't in a foul mood and put them together as partners.

In Charms, nothing of incidence happened asides from a few sly looks from Harry. Draco had flushed and concentrated on his work, thankful of Blaise keeping him grounded beside him. But then, of course, the hell that was Potions occurred. 

Severus seemed to be awfully testy that day, despite Draco's earlier prayers. They were to be brewing a Dreamless Sleep Draught in pairs. And of course, it wasn't long into class before Harry was sauntering towards the front of the classroom, bag slung over his shoulder lazily, a small, cute smirk on the corner of his lips, as he sat down beside Draco who immediately stood up.

"I will retrieve the ingredients," he merely snapped before starting off towards the Ingredients cupboards, his mind was racing. ' _Why does Snape have to do this? Does he really spite us this much?_ ' he growled to himself. He didn't know if he could concentrate, even being the Potions Master he was, Draco had a feeling he wasn't going to recieve top marks that day. His mind would be too lost in the boy next to him.

Ever since he came into realization that Harry Potter was most definitely his mate, Draco had no idea what really to think of it. It made sense, with the whole aura matching exercise in Dark Arts and now that the two were paired often in that classroom, every other day, he knew he would have to get used to being close to him even after the incidents of last nights Prefect duty. What Draco also knew was that Harry didn't seem to mind and he also knew what he was. He must have figured it out, but how?

Sitting down back at their desk, he noticed that Harry had edged his seat closer to Draco's and attempted to act nonchalant about it. Draco smirked to himself, he felt accomplished because The-Boy-Who-Lived was doing this all for him and his attention.

"If you start cutting the Doxy eggs, I will crush the eyes of newt," Draco drawled automatically, grabbing the edge of his potions knife to begin crushing the newt, the strange thick substance oozed out onto the table and he made a disgusted face at it. Harry couldn't help but chuckle at the face.

"Too dirty for you, Malfoy?" he purred, "I could do it for you, you know. I'm rather good with...dirty things," Harry was leaning in towards him now, his green eyes burning with passion as Draco willed himself to concentrate on the newt eyes on the table before him, his grip tightened around his knife.

"Potter, just cut the Doxy Eggs, would you?" Draco snapped in response, his entire body was tensed up and his breathing was harsh now. Yupp, he definitely wasn't surviving that Potion's lesson. Not with his sanity intact, at least.

Harry edged closer still, willing to see how far he could go to make Draco snap. _'I know this is mean, I know but I can't help it! I want Draco, I want him to accept wanting me. And I want him to show it to everybody_ ,' he thought selfishly, ' _Well with this War being thrown on me, don't I get a chance to be selfish? To be happy?_ '

"We need to crush the lacewing flies and add three freshly crushed," Draco repeated the line from the textbook, Harry nodded slowly and pushed the dull end of his blade down on the lacewing flies Draco had collected one at a time.

The blonde was watching him, the way his hard, calloused hand held the knife gently, his emerald eyes as they concentrated beneath those ghastly glasses, how his messy hair fell in every direction and he was mesmerized. How did it take him so long to realize just how beautiful Harry really was? Must have been the fact he doubted the boy knew how to bathe or dress himself properly. 

"Potter, crush them harder," Draco ordered, the dead flies weren't oozing yet like they were supposed to be.

"Harder, you say?" Harry asked, turning to him with a malicious grin that Draco thought only a top-notch Slytherin could adorn, "I can do hard. Actually, I love doing it hard. Everything. The harder the better. Would you like to see just how _hard_ I can do it?" his grin widened as Draco ducked his head, allowing for his blonde fringe to cover his rosy cheeks.

He couldn't help but think about the night before at that point, their members grinding up against one another, Harry's hot breath on his skin, the way he sucked his neck. The same neck Draco had to cover with a high collared blouse that day. He couldn't have people asking questions he couldn't give answers to. "Just bleeding well crush the-"

"Jeez, I'm doing it. No need to blow a gasket!" Harry teased, crushing them harder and then dropping the three necessary lacewing flies into their brewing potion.

"Now heat it up to 150 degrees," Draco ordered tightly.

"I would ask you why don't you just heat it up...but then again, you and I both know how good I am at heating things up so..." Harry trailed off with a sly wink which made Draco's body shiver, forcing him to jump back to the sensations he had felt when their skin touched less than twelve hours ago. Harry heated up the cauldron and followed Draco's directions without incident for the better part of the period.

It was nearing three-quarters through their Double Potions class when they had to allow their potion to simmer for seven minutes after three minutes of counter clockwise stirring. Harry offered to stir and as he did so his unoccupied left hand fell down onto Draco's upper thigh nonchalantly. The blonde's eyes widened at the surge of electricity that pulsated through him, "Potter!" he hissed, when the boy turned to him and shrugged as if to say 'Can I help you?' Draco decided to give up and into the nice, warm sensation of that hand being there.

Draco wanted him so badly, and he had barely slept thinking about him all night. He knew and fully understood that Harry was his mate, but it didn't mean he accepted it yet. His Father might not work for the Dark Lord any more and this was common knowledge, but that didn't mean he was ready to completely betray his own flesh and blood by mating with The-Boy-Who-Lived, a Half-Blood, at that. Even if he was famous, more powerful than most Wizards if not all, good looking and rich too, it still didn't make up for the fact that he wasn't a Pureblood. Ever since Draco was little, he was told he had to be with a Pureblood.

And then he remembered that he was a full-blooded Veela. Not very pure of him. Also, whilst on the subject, he recalled how if the Veela didn't mate with their intended by the end of the first season, they would lose the will to live. Draco felt as though he could easily prove this theory wrong. He had been living without Potter for the first seventeen years of his life, Draco foolishly thought he could keep on ploughing through without the brunette.

But this was an entirely different situation. Draco liked to separate it from his thoughts. For Harry Potter's hand wasn't on his thigh any more and he had this incredible feeling on his...' _IS HARRY POTTER'S HAND ON MY PACKAGE?_ ' Draco's mind was screaming bloody murder at him, but he didn't find his body reacting in any negative way. All he did was widen his eyes and let his forehead fall down onto the desk. He didn't even try to hit Harry's hand away and there it was rubbing gently through Draco's fabric trying to arouse the already firm member.

Draco felt his world spinning, the fumes in the Potions classroom and the busied students weren't helping. He tried to think of Professor Snape in ghastly situations, but it just wouldn't compensate for the amazing feeling his groin was experiencing.

Harry had been slowly rubbing Draco's area for a few minutes now and he was surprised that just now the blonde had noticed it. This made him smile smugly as he finished off his stirring and sat back in his seat nonchalantly. And then he removed his hand from the other boys lap, and watched as Draco's hunched form relax visibly and he heaved a sigh of relief. Harry knew he was driving him insane, that even if he wanted to stop it that the Veela in him most likely wouldn't. So Harry kept going. He couldn't fathom exactly what had made him so devious, but lately around Draco Malfoy that's all he wanted to do. Maybe Draco was having a bad influence on Harry's Slytherin side.

Harry slowly began to undo the buttons on Draco's trousers, hoping that it would take a moment for the blonde to notice like it had the last time. No such luck as Draco automatically responded, his right hand wrapped tightly around Harry's impeding wrist and yanked it faraway from him.

"Watch where you put your hands, Potter, or you might not have any hands left to put anywhere," Draco threatened darkly, and with that he took all of the willpower inside of him to edge himself as faraway from the boy as possible.

"Hmm...no fun, Draco," Harry pouted mockingly, but decided it was best to leave it for now. He had done enough harm as it was and he was beginning to feel embarrassed of himself. He was taking full advantage of his knowledge of Draco's condition.

"No detention tonight Potter," Draco said after a few minuets of silence, Harry turned to him in question.

"Why not, can't take the heat?" he asked.

"I have got better things to do than waste my time with little Gryffindork's like you," Draco hissed, but they both knew it wasn't true. More silence passed awkwardly in the stiff, muggy air.

"Draco, stop denying yourself," Harry said after a few minutes, he could tell that every time he was near the blonde he would tense up. He had read how hard it was to resist one's mate, and he didn't like that Draco was doing this constantly and without second thought. Was it really that hard to just accept it and want him? Because Merlin knows Harry definitely wanted Draco now after all of his day dreaming.

"Since when have you known, Potter?" Draco questioned, he wasn't going to outwardly deny it any more, but he wasn't going to accept it, either.

"Since, erm, the end of last term," Harry blushed, lowering his head.

"How did you figure it out then? Before I did, might I say," Draco added gloomily, crossing his arms.

"Uhm...a lotta research. You've changed, a lot...physically,"

"I know, please do not remind me of this. My hair is absurdly hideous," Draco grumbled but Harry couldn't help but let a small smile creep up his face. 

"I-I think you look brilliant, actually," Harry said with a deep, crimson blush before turning his attention towards the back of the room. Ron was sitting there beside Pansy Parkinson and for once it looked like the two had something in common. They were fuming, bright-red faces at the two of them.

"Looks like they aren't too happy about us talking. What the bloody hell do they expect, us to hex each others balls off?" Harry snarled beneath his breath, he hated being watched like a little child and he even hated it more when people judged him on who he could or could not be friends with. It happened more than one might think.

"What use would that be?" Draco sighed, he was rubbing his forehead now. Even though Harry was nearby, it was still pounding. It was the side effects from him not completing his bond yet. Spring was drawing nearer and it was a warning. One he still didn't know if he wanted to heed.

They finished their lesson in silence, Harry had stopped picking on Draco as well. The next class before lunch was Transfiguration and Harry, Ron and Hermione got there before Draco and his cronies. But as Draco walked in the front door completely composed once again, collected and steady, Harry couldn't help but smirk again. He wanted to start playing with his mind all over. He wanted to see him struggling, he wanted Draco to admit that he wanted him.

And then he saw the perfect opportunity, Draco's collar fell down slightly from where it was supposed to be as he walked towards his usual seat in the middle of McGonagall's classroom. Harry smiled broadly at the red and purple love mark he saw there, he immediately stood up and ignored his friends questioning him as he made his way over to Draco.

The blonde looked up at him and raised an elegant eyebrow, "Have you lost your way, Potty? Need a Map?" he drawled lazily, and then pretended to look at his manicured nails uninterestingly.

"Nope, just wondering what it is I see here..." Harry said cheerily, reaching down towards Draco and as he was about to pull down his collar further, the blonde reacted quickly. Quicker than Harry would have expected him to act.

The Stunning Curse flew at Harry full speed but he easily deflected it before sending a Boogey Hex in response. Draco wasn't as lucky with his fast deflection. The entire class stared, not knowing what to make of the sudden situation. 'What just happened?' was the question on everybody's mind.

"Do not touch me, Potter! And do not fucking THINK about it," Draco growled, righting himself now and standing towering above Harry who frowned back up at him.

Harry didn't think it really was that big of a deal, all he wanted to do was tease him about his love bite but then Draco had just completely flipped on him. ' _Why is he so bloody difficult?_ ' he cursed himself, but then lowered his wand and shoved it into his pocket as Draco eyed him icily, fists clenched at his side.

"Boys! Fighting, again! That's it, I've had it with you two!" Professor McGonagall's shrill voice sounded from the doorway, "Ten points from each House..and detention, tonight! Seven o'clock sharp, and don't even think about being late Mister Malfoy!" she hissed and then strode to the front of the classroom. "Now in your seats!" she added, and Harry quickly obliged to find his own seat next to Ron and Hermione.

"What was that?" Ron hissed when it was safe a few minutes later, "What the hell is going on with you and Malfoy? Being all talky-talky in Potions and then...whatever the hell that was!"

"Malfoy's a mood swinger, we all know that," Harry shrugged.

"Then why do you keep provoking him, Harry?" Hermione questioned, shaking her head in disapproval at her friends actions.

Harry found he could only shrug in response as he thought ' _I'm provoking him because it's the most fun I've ever had,'_


	10. Getting To Know You

_"I'm not that innocent, Malfoy,"_

Harry was ten minutes early to detention, he leaned on the wall outside of Professor McGonagall's office looking nonchalant, which wasn't at all how he was feeling. He had felt bad for his actions the previous day, but he couldn't quite seem to help himself. Since he had accepted what he and Draco were towards one another, all he wanted was to initiate it. During the Christmas holidays, he had set himself up for being let down by thinking that if he let Draco know he knew, then he would simply accept him. Apparently it was going to be more difficult than that, and Harry felt bad for having a little bit of fun in the process of wooing Draco.

Said person sauntered up the corridor now and made Harry's breath catch in his throat as he watched the tall boy stride towards him. He always held so much grace, poise, and elegance in his walk and Harry couldn't help but to be captivated by it.

"Draco," he greeted gently.

"Potter," Draco sneered and stood a few feet away from him now.

"Look, Draco, I'm sorry for getting us detention and for losing us points. I-I didn't think that uhm, that er, teasing you about...that," Harry pointed to his neck, "Was going too far,"

"Of course it was! What was I supposed to do when you brought it to everybody's attention? Flat out tell them and have Blaise, Pansy and the goons absolute throttle me not to mention the Weasel would just love to have joined in," Draco snarled haughtily before taking a deep breath to collect his cool composure.

"Well you could have lied!" Harry spat in defence.

"Do you forget that I am a Slytherin, Potter, and so are my friends? They would have been able to tell my lie right away and I would not have been able to rest until they heard the truth. Then what? Was I supposed to go broadcasting my Veela heritage all over the school?" Draco growled, and Harry blinked stunned as it was the first time Draco openly admitted what he was. Draco paused too, it was the first time he had talked about it with anybody other than his Mother and Father.

"Right, erm," Harry blushed deeply and muttered, "Sorry,"

Draco scoffed but didn't say anything more as Professor McGonagall joined them, coming from the opposite end of the corridor. "Mister Malfoy, Mister Potter, follow me if you would," she clipped and turned back down from where she had come and led the way. The boys walked silently beside one another, though a few feet of distance between them. Harry kept chancing looks over at Draco, but every time he did the blonde would look further interested in his black leather shoes.

McGonagall brought them to an empty classroom where two lanterns were set upon one table which also had two piles of parchment, ink and quills. She turned to the boys with a sour face.

"For six years now you two have been at each others throats. May I speak for the rest of the staff and students here and say that we have had quite enough of this childish rubbish! You are turning into grown men and I fear the repercussions of your actions, as should you," she glared at them both in that condescending way a mother would, "The two of you are seemingly incapable of doing it yourselves so I will do it for you in this detention. You both are to write an eight inch essay about one another!"

"But, Professor!" Harry groaned immediately, Draco just stood and said nothing though the scowl on his face said it all.

"Mister Potter, you will do this essay! It is to be based off of each others likes, dislikes, childhood and future goals. I have put wards up on the room to ensure that if any sort of magic is used, I will be notified. I will be down the hall in my office and _do not try me_! You both have three hours here tonight to complete those essays and if I do not recieve all eight inches, you will be back here tomorrow-"

"But, Professor, I have Quidditch Practice tomo-"

"Mister Potter!" McGonagall snapped, "You will do well to remember not to interrupt a Professor when one is speaking! Now get to it, the two of you. If you can't grow up, I'll make you," she snarled and with that turned on her heel and left the room. They heard the unmistakable sound of it being locked behind them.

Harry groaned immediately and dragged himself over to the desk in the middle of the room, "Urgh! Great, we better get this done because I can't miss Quidditch!"

"Fine by me, I do not want to have to spend more time in this room with you than I have to," Draco drawled lightly, taking his seat next to Harry and moving it to the far end of the table.

Harry shot him a glare, "You do want to spend as much time locked in a room with me as you can," and at Draco's incredulous look Harry cut him off before he had a chance to speak, "Don't even think about lying, Draco. We're alone. Can we just get on with this bleeding essay?"

Draco sneered at him but didn't say anything more as he dipped his quill in the ink bottle and turned to Harry with an unpleasant smile. "Alright, go on then," he merely said.

"What do you mean, go on then?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I mean tell me about you. Likes, dislikes, whatever the hell I can know to fill up eight inches," Draco snapped, he definitely wasn't pleased with this detention.

Harry blushed lightly, he didn't think there was that much about him to write, honestly. "Er, can you go first, please?" he stuttered, he really didn't know where to begin.

Draco rolled his eyes and slumped back in his chair and nodded his head. Harry readied his quill and looked expectantly at the blonde. "Let's start with childhood then," he said decidedly with a slight curl of his lips. "I was born Draco Lucius Malfoy on December 17th, a Sagittarius," he said smugly as Harry rolled his eyes but began writing anyway.

"I remember from a young age being taught the way of the Purebloods, how one was supposed to act in public, how one was supposed to act when brought in front of superiors, inferiors, at Gala's and Balls, what-have-you. I thoroughly enjoyed learning all of this because I was also granted lessons in the Magical Arts. My Father was quite keen on me learning the Dark Arts, but I preferred Potions which my Mother tutored me in daily since I was six or seven, I can't quite remember the exact age..." Draco continued much like this for over thirty minutes.

Every so often he would describe a specific event or happening at a Christmas Gala or he would describe a Pureblood tradition, Harry would sometimes be offended by them. Such as the tradition to present your offspring at these Gala's and bargain with them for a spouse. That was utterly disturbing to him. Alas, he was glad that Draco needn't go through any of that.

"I like reading, drawing, Potions and picking on Gryffindor's who think they're better than everybody else," he sneered pointedly after he was finished with his childhood, "I hate Quidditch. What an abysmal sport that is! So rough, undignified and dirty! The only reason I joined was to beat you. I also hate Defence Against the Dark Arts because my entire life I have been learning the Dark Arts, not the defences against them. I still believe that is how it should be, for many students would be a lot better off when facing Death Eaters if they knew a few spells that could actually help them,"

"I agree. I think the Ministry needs to change the curriculum, but I know Remus pushes more towards the practical end of things than anybody else so he's taking it as far as he can I guess," Harry shrugged and quickly ignored Draco's surprise at him agreeing.

He continued on speaking well into their first hour and a half of their detention, and Harry found himself not minding hearing it all. He figured that if he was his mate, shouldn't he know these things? Though he found he already knew most of them. Oddly enough, including Draco's favourite colour which was silver - he always wore silver somewhere on his person. Harry smirked as he saw the silver lining of the boy's cloak.

"Got eight inches yet?" Draco asked, leaning slightly across the desk and peering down at Harry's chicken scratch handwriting.

"Erm, a bit over actually. You talk too much sometimes, Malfoy," he teased gently with a small smile, Draco found himself blushing and ducking his head back over to his side of the table and getting his own quill.

"On with it then, Potter. Unless you enjoy being locked up with me in a classroom that much," Draco blanched as soon as he said the words for Harry's mind clicked with another idea.

Harry leaned towards him and placed his hand on his lap, he brought his lips close to the side of Draco's face. "I absolutely love being locked up anywhere with you," he purred, his hot breath tickling the others smooth skin. "Draco," Harry said gently, squeezing the boy's thigh making him shiver.

Draco was feeling waves of pleasure tumult through his body, his Veela senses heightened as he smelt that musky scent of his mate and he yearned for more of it but he disallowed himself from even moving. He didn't trust his own body with its actions. "Potter, please," he said strained, he knew he couldn't take much more of it. He felt his nerve endings shaking beneath his skin for want. "Please, just tell me about growing up," he repeated and Harry sighed, but he didn't remove his hand but merely sat back in his seat.

"Not much to tell. Didn't do anything, didn't really exist, lived with Muggles. I'm sorry in advance Malfoy, it's gonna take quite a bit of imagination to fill up eight inches about me," Harry sighed and was frowning when Draco looked over at him with inquiry.

"Potter, there has to be something you could tell me. So you say you lived with Muggles? What are their names?" he urged, and for some reason he wanted to know more than just to finish this blasted essay. He wanted to know out of personal interest, come to think of it he wanted to know for six years and he was finally getting the opportunity. He was given an insight to the Golden Boy not many others had. 

"I really don't wanna talk about them," Harry's frown deepened, he removed his hand from Draco's thigh now and the blonde found himself not liking the lack of contact. So he put his own hand on Harry's left shoulder, startling him.

Harry's eyes jumped to Draco's and he saw sincere curiosity there, and all of Harry's ill feelings flooded from his body and his frown slowly turned into a small, warm smile. ' _Draco just touched me on his own accord. Without me being a prat about it. And he's not taking his hand away_ ,' was all Harry was thinking.

"Erm, well...they were Vernon, Petunia and my cousin Dudley Dursley. They were a rotten sort of Muggle's, definitely not ones to judge the entire species on. They were unfit buggers who didn't care about anybody but themselves. When I came to Hogwarts you reminded me of them, actually, except for the unfit part," Harry blushed lightly and Draco was still sitting there looking at him, listening. He would write what he learned later, he had a feeling Harry wouldn't spill as much if he were concentrating on some stupid essay.

"Why were they rotten, Harry? Weren't they nice and obedient to you, being a Wizard and all?" Draco asked, for this was what the common public thought about the situation when it was found out that Harry Potter lived with Muggles. He must live in some great Manor with the Muggles as his guardians, wilfully waiting on him hand and foot.

"Are you kidding me?" Harry snorted, slightly amused at the thought of it, "I was pretty damn obedient to them is more like it! I wasn't allowed using magic at their House, and I'm still not. I almost got expelled a few years ago for doing it and I couldn't let that happen - that would mean living full time at the Dursley's, and I'd rather die than have to do that again," he groaned.

"Why were they so terrible?" Draco was feeling a small pit of anger bubble in his chest, he ignored it for now.

"They lied to me about who I was. I had no idea I was a Wizard, or who my parents were. I thought they died in a car crash. Not until my eleventh birthday did I know anything at all about this world and to add icing on the cake they treated me like a House Elf. I did the dishes, the cooking, the cleaning, the yard work, and I didn't mind it. As long as I didn't have to sit in the house and be told how I'm an ungrateful bastard like my Father," Harry sighed, he never really liked talking about his childhood. But with a past like his, who would?

Draco suddenly changed his emotion from sincere to complete outrage, he was on his feet now and his hand had tightened its grip painfully on Harry's shoulder. The brunette looked up at him with raised eyebrows. "Those bastards, those good for nothing bastards," he swore, his eyes were slitted.

Harry was scared, looking up at him. Draco honestly looked murderous at that moment, his features all contorted with what looked to be venom. Harry gently placed his hand on top of Draco's, automatically softening the blonde's facial expression, "Draco, it's fine. No need to get upset. I don't think I ever have to go back to them any way. I have Grimmauld Place now, I can go live there, it's my own house. I never have to see those damned Muggles again and trust me I don't want to," he added with a reassuring smile. "Just sit back down and you'd better get writing, we only have an hour left," he added.

"Harry, you do not understand. They cannot just get away treating you like that! Did Dumbledore not know?" Draco snapped.

"I'm pretty sure he did, but there wasn't much he could do about it," Harry shrugged as he watched Draco sit down from his peripheral vision.

"Why didn't he just take you to live here?" he scowled.

"You see it's a little more complicated than that. There was some blood magic done on the Dursley's and they were my protection and...just, can we drop the subject of my childhood, please? What's done is done and it's not going to change, but it won't happen ever again. I just don't wanna talk about it, alright Malfoy? Let's talk about Quidditch, or 'Mione, or the Weasley's," he offered quickly. But there was something in Draco's expression that told him the blonde had another idea in mind.

"How about let's talk about Black. And about Lupin. And Snape," he added more as an after thought. Draco had always been curious as to Harry's relationship with these older men, he knew it had something to do with his parents back in their school days, but still none of it really made any sense to him or the rest of the public.

"I-er, I dunno Malfoy...I think we should stick to-"

"Potter, if you accept being my mate you're going to have to accept answering some bleeding questions, alright?" Draco snapped, ' _Why does he feel like he has to hide everything from me? What is it that's so painful that he's hiding, and why can't I make that pain go away?_ ' he found himself thinking.

"Uh, so you actually accept being my V-Veela?" Harry stuttered out surprised.

"This can go two ways, Potter. I can survive without you, I am most certain that I will not die without mating with the likes of you. Or I can mate with you. Either way we will forever be tied," he scowled.

"Draco, there's no possible way you could survive without me I mean..."

"A little high of yourself, aren't you? Just answer my question, let me write the essay, and let's get out of here," Draco ordered.

Surprisingly, Harry obliged. He allowed himself to open up and he spilled everything. And everything he spilt, he had barely even spoken to his two best friends about. It felt good to get it off his chest, his feelings towards the loss of Sirius, the closeness he felt with the last surviving Marauder (minus Pettigrew, that was), and how much he loathed Severus just because he treated him poorly because of the way his Father acted in school. Draco listened intently and wrote and it wasn't long before his eight inches were full. It was ten minutes until their time was over, and they found themselves sitting quietly now staring at their completed essays going over everything each boy had revealed about themselves.

Now Draco didn't know what to think, but he knew what it was he wanted to do. He turned to Harry in his seat and startled the brunette by placing his smooth, slender hand on the side of his face. Harry immediately turned to face Draco and their eyes locked, that same passion brewed between them. Heat ignited from where Draco's hand lay on his face, and Harry savoured the feeling of the contact of their skin.

"You know, Potter, in the past couple of days I haven't known somebody to act more Slytherin than what you have been up to," Draco purred, he felt his Veela powers attempting to take over and barely shoved them back down again.

Harry felt his knees go weak and knew that if he had been standing, he wouldn't have been any more. The way that Draco was looking at him, with such want and need. He never imagined that the blonde would give in so soon, that he would be the one to be making the moves. "I'm not that innocent, Malfoy," Harry merely responded, his voice slightly shaking.

Draco smirked at the statement and moved his seat close to Harry's, his thumb caressing circles on his cheek as he brought his face less than an inch away. Their hot breath hit each others mouths, Draco licked his lips and closed his eyes. He felt everything inside of him pulling towards Harry, that musky scent was taking over him bit by bit, passion was bubbling in his stomach and groin. He had never felt so turned on in his life, just being this close.

"I think we both know you aren't innocent, Harry," Draco drawled and then closed the distance between them.

Their lips met in a gentle, caressing kiss that surprised Harry nearly out of his wits. And just as he was about to respond further by wrapping his arms around the boy, they heard the door of the classroom unlock and jumped apart blushing furiously.

When McGonagall excused them that night, they both were walking back to their dormitories with an extra spring to their step.


	11. In Deeper

_"Love is the smartest trick in the book somebody could fall for, and you already have,"_

As Harry strode back into the Common Room, happiness from his and Draco's first mutual kiss was very evident. There were a few older year Gryffindors hanging around in the dimly lit loft, including Ron and Hermione. Harry interrupted their discrete cuddling by plopping down on the couch next to Ron. The couple automatically detached themselves asides from the redhead's arm around his girlfriend's shoulders and they were flushed looking.

"Did McGonagall or Malfoy give yeah a hard time, mate?" Ron quipped.

"Nope," Harry shrugged, a goofy grin on his face. His mind was still back kissing Draco - it had been so tender and sweet, something he hadn't known the boy could be.

"No? Two of them in one night you had to deal with! I wouldn't have survived that more than a Hippogriff attack!" Ron was looking on at his best friend curiously. Nobody came back from McGonagall's detentions happy.   
  
Apparently the world was coming to an end.

"No, you wouldn't have," Harry snorted amusedly, "We only had to write an essay eight inches long, wasn't so bad," he said stretching his legs out in front of him and adorning a satisfied smile.

Hermione and Ron exchanged worried, curious gazes. "What about?"

"Hmm?"

"What did you and Malfoy have to write about?" Hermione repeated herself.

"Oh, y'know, she said she was sick of us bickering and acting so childish so she made us write eight inches about each other," Harry's smile widened in thought of what he wrote about Draco. It could sum him up as; 'Pompus, arrogant, wealthy, smart, beautiful, and richly cunning with an obsession for high quality fashion',...Yes, Harry was certain he was falling for the Veela.

"Harry! Oi! Snap out of it!" Ron was clapping his hands in front of Harry's face looking worried, "Where's your head tonight?"

"Sorry, just kinda drowsy after all that writing and Malfoy talking so much," he lied. He knew exactly where his head was, but he wasn't about to tell them.

"Did he do anything? Hex you?" Ron asked concernedly, thinking maybe Harry was just covering for him.

"Y'know he's not that bad, Ron. Kinda nice once you get him alone," Harry closed his eyes lightly now, and all he saw was two silver eyes and a pair of thin, pink lips.

"Kinda nice once...Merlin Harry! I thought you were talking about Malfoy for a second there!" Ron wiped his brow exasperatingly as Hermione quietly watched, understanding slowly coming to her.

"I _was_ talking about Malfoy,"

"Harry, mate, stop pulling a keezle on me here!" he choked out.

Harry faked a stretch and yawn before standing up, "Malfoy's an alright guy and McGonagall's right about us being childish. I'm knackered so g'night guys," Harry said softly, ignoring Ron's goldfish expression before heading up to his dormitory.

Harry lay in bed still smiling despite himself, unable to keep his thoughts off of Draco. As Ron came into the room, Harry pretended to be asleep not wanting said thoughts interrupted.

Two days later, the weather slowly warming up turning to spring, was the first Quidditch match of the new year. It was to be Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw and everybody was excited, they were a decently matched team. The Ravenclaw's trained their Beaters hard and long, whereas Harry always drilled the Chasers of his team more. One was more offensive, the other defensive. It was always entertaining to watch and the students were riled in their stands. All except for Draco Malfoy, who sat watching with steely silver eyes. He didn't like this Quidditch thing one bit any more.

He sat there with his warm cloak pulled tight around him, his arms crossed, and his lips pulled into a tight grimace. His silken, platinum hair bounced lightly in the wind and his pointed features look quite displeased. Memories of a thirteen year-old raven-hair, scar-head boy kept coming into his head. The weather that day had been wretched, and then those Dementor's came and the boy fell at least fifty feet in the air from his broomstick, hurtling downwards with only the ground to break his fall. Draco remembered his breath had caught in his throat that day, whether he was willing to admit it or not, even if back then he still loathed The-Boy-Who-Lived he had been scared that the world's only chance at defeating twisted Lord Voldemort were going to end. Thankfully that old coot of a Professor had acted quickly enough. But Draco's Veela mind was telling him that maybe this time he wouldn't react quick enough, maybe even though the weather was calm and slightly crisp, Harry would slip and fall again. And then what? He dies and Draco dies soon after? No, Draco definitely didn't like this at all.

"You alright, Malfoy?" Blaise hissed from his side, nudging him gently in the ribs. Draco shot a deep, icy glare over at the sixth year who automatically put his hands up in mock defence and grinned. "Woah! Don't shoot, I'm unarmed!" he teased, making Draco lighten up a little bit.

He was glad that in first year him and Blaise had become good friends. They had always known each other from Pureblood Gala's and Balls they would attend whilst growing up, but when they finally came to Hogwarts together they really got a chance to get to know one another. They both, in their opinion, shared much more idealistic beliefs than that of their parents and classmates.

"Very funny, Zabini. I just don't think I'm in the mood for Quidditch today...but I can't miss the game," he said through gritted teeth, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and he knew it wasn't from the cold. He turned his gaze down onto the Quidditch Pitch which had been magically cleared of all snow to make it easier for the players. Harry was leading his team out of their locker room, Marcus Belby a Chaser from Ravenclaw was leading his.

Draco watched with inward awe, though still a stone cold expression, as Harry strutted across the field. Whether he knew it or not, the boy drew everybody's attention to him just by walking in the room and it wasn't just because of that infamous scar of his. It was the way he carried himself, his persona finesse that he didn't even know he had, he held his head high in all types of situations and always had a brave intensity in those shockingly emerald eyes. Harry walked with his Firebolt held tightly in his right hand, a broomstick nobody other than himself and Draco had in the school for it was still the top model and most expensive and extravagant amateur broom. His Quidditch uniform did not do his toned body justice but it did well enough, he was wearing his worn leather Seeker gloves and his free hand ran through his messy, unkempt raven hair that billowed every angle possible.

Draco took a quick look around the stands and noticed he most definitely wasn't the only one seemingly captivated by Harry, and he found himself getting instinctually protective and possessive because of this. He allowed his gaze to fall deeply on Harry again, allowing his senses to bask in the others presence a couple hundred yards away, down on the ground of the Pitch.

The Captain's were shaking hands now, Harry smiled gently at Belby who merely scowled in response. A lot of people liked to get into nasty moods before a game of Quidditch, really riles them up. Draco didn't miss Harry's sidelong glance at Cho who was blushing and staring down at the ground, she was the Ravenclaw Seeker and her relations with Harry were never private, that's for sure. Draco felt his blood boil with jealousy, but he somehow kept himself cool and restrained in his seat beside Blaise. He wondered if Harry harvested any feelings for Cho...although he had said himself to be 'bent' to Draco the other night so maybe that was the problem with his and Chang's relationship.

After the Captain's dispersed into the air, Harry kicked elegantly off from the ground, both teams hovered in formation around one another, eyes glaring, hands gripping, nerves waiting. Madame Hooch had the bludgers and Golden Snitch released, the Quaffle was underneath her arm as she looked between the teams. "Let's have a good match, shall we? Keep it clean!" she then blew the whistle and threw the Quaffle, Lee Jordan's commentating started up almost immediately as the middle of the Pitch became a flurry of brooms, wind, and Quidditch balls.

Ravenclaw was a good fair match to Gryffindor, but almost everybody could tell who was going to win the match overall. It always came down to the Seekers, and there was never anybody who could beat Harry on a broomstick. He was a natural flyer, to say the least, he was smooth and at one with the entire concept of flying. A lot of people say it's because of his Father who was quite a fair flyer himself, but Draco believed otherwise.

He believed that Harry was such an amazing craftsman on the broom because he grew up detached from magic. Of course this theory only came into his head in the past day as he muddled over the upcoming match. It made sense, because to him this entire world will always be foreign. He grew up understanding only the Muggle type of life, so when magic suddenly came out of nowhere as it must have for him, Harry probably felt absolutely overjoyed the first time he rode a broom. It was almost every Muggle's desire to fly like some kind of superhero, and when Harry found out that he really could, he probably took it straight to heart and did his best with it. That's what Draco believed, he believed it was passion that fuelled his brilliance at Quidditch.

Draco could see that passion now as his eyes never left Harry's in the sky and the rest of the world blanked out to him. The cheering in the stands were silenced, Lee Jordan didn't exist, all that did to Draco was Harry pouring his passion into his flying. It was written all over the Gryffindor's face, the pleasure and exhilaration as he zipped and soared way above the game, his eyes scanning for the Golden Snitch ruefully. There was a strategy Harry used sometimes with catching the Snitch, and that was to make sure it was at least twenty or thirty minutes into a game. Nobody wanted a short game, that was never fun, even though it could be record breaking it still wasn't entertaining. If he ever found the Snitch, he would allow his eyes to trail after it constantly but he would never fly in its direction, he would wait until the game had been going on long enough. Draco respected that, and he also saw this strategy used quite a few times and was surprised it never backfired with the other Seeker finding the Snitch as well. Harry was just too good and too fast; he could score a contract with a professional Quidditch Team straight out of Seventh Year if he wanted to.

As he watched Harry do laps around the large Pitch for awhile, not knowing the score whatsoever of the game or anything else that was happening around him, Draco felt that worry pile in the pit of his stomach again. He really did know what he would do if Harry suddenly fell, if a Bludger came and knocked him off his broomstick. Draco would feel instant remorse, even if it was just a few cuts and bruises.

Knowing this, Draco gritted his teeth together hard and put up an even heavier mask over his features. ' _I'm actually this worried about Harry? He's survived numerous Quidditch matches before and he is an excellent flyer...why am I so worried about Harry_?' Draco was questioning himself.

' _Because you will always worry about him this much_ ,'

 _'Am I really in that deep? Do I really like him that much?_ ' he asked his inner voice.

' _Of course you are and of course you do, but you already knew that. Why else would you have chosen him as your mate if you didn't care for him that much? If you didn't love him?'_

' _Love? That is surely going a bit far. I chose him for my mate because he is intelligent, powerful, able, and cunning unlike most of the other gits in this school not because of something as foolhardy as love,'_

' _Ah, but that is where you know you are wrong. Love is the smartest trick in the book somebody could fall for, and you already have. You just have to realize it and let go, let go of the fact it may be stupid Perfect Potter and think of him as Harry. A whole different person, who he really is. Just Harry. Your Harry,'_

' _You know what? That's right. He is my Harry. All mine_ ,' Draco found himself agreeing inwardly now, his expression softening gently. That boy everybody else had their eyes on, the one that captivated the masses, their Ssaviour, their idol and rival, was Draco's Harry. He was his, and Draco knew now that nothing and nobody could ever take him away from him. A goofy smirk came onto his face without him realizing it, and Blaise looked over with a worried expression and followed his line of sight.

"Have you jinxed Potter's broomstick without telling me, Malfoy?" he asked slowly.

Draco snapped his mask back into place and turned to face his friend, "No! Why would I do that? You know better than anybody, Blaise, that I enjoy a fair match of Quidditch," Draco scowled, half-lying. 

"Whatever you say. It's just that you were looking pretty oddly at Potter just now, I was wondering what was up," Blaise shrugged, "Must've been my imagination,"

"Must have," Draco said in a far off voice, his eyes focused back on the brunette in question. ' _I am absolutely done for. I cannot keep my eyes or mind off of him! Oh codswallop this all to bleeding hell, I am done for. Not only am I going to lose my reputation, but my Father is most certainly going to murder me!_ ' Draco was adorning an extremely pained expression now, Blaise looked even more heavily concerned.

"Draco, you're my best mate. Tell me what's up, I haven't seen you ever look like this. It is kind of worrying me and - well, we cannot have others questioning this," Blaise took a quick look around, he like Draco took pride in the fact that all other students viewed them as heartless bastards. It made life at Hogwarts not only more fun, but definitely easier.

The blonde heaved a heavy sigh, his shoulders hunched over, ' _Zabini's a good guy, he'll understand. He has to_ ,' he assured himself. Then he turned to fully face his dark-haired friend and looked at him almost sorrowfully. 

"Blaise?" he began gently, softer than he had ever heard the blond speak, "I'm a full-blooded Veela and Harry Potter is my mate. I think I am falling in love with him," and then silence followed for quite sometime after his statement.

Blaise held an incredulous expression, "Can't say you didn't surprise me with that one, mate!"


	12. Bottoms Up!

_"All I care about is you, me and our broomsticks,"_

After the Quidditch match, where Gryffindor won by Harry catching the Snitch after forty minutes of game play, Blaise dragged Draco into  adark corner of the Entrance Hall away from the crowd of students inside.

"Okay, you're going to need to tell me absolutely everything. Starting with the Veela situation," Blaise said firmly, he had his fist balled up in the collar of Draco's robes not in a threatning manner, it was just so his friend couldn't runaway from the inquiry.

Draco looked at him scowling, not very pleased with the manner in which he was being handled. "Do you not think it would be more prudent to have this conversation elsewhere?" he hissed.

"No way Malfoy, you're not getting away that easily! You'll just slink off somewhere in the dungeons where I can't find you! You're telling me what the devil is going on," Zabini had lowered his voice to the same icy snarling Draco did when he wanted to get something, they both played this attitude quite well.

Unfortunately enough for Draco, his senses peeked and he was drawn completely away from the conversation. The object of his instinctual obsession walked in through the front doors, sweaty from the game with tows of Gryffindor's flanked at his sides congratulating him and the rest of the team. They walked past the alcove him and Blaise were huddled in, but Harry broke off from the group with an excuse of leaving something at the Pitch. He waited for the students he was with to walk up the stairs before he turned to stare pointedly at the two Slytherins.

Draco's breath stilled as Blaise backed away slightly from his friend, meeting Harry's gaze with a levelled glare, "Can we help you, Potter?" he spat lightly, crossing his arms as Harry approached with his broom still in his hand.

"Not the likes of you, Zabini," Harry retorted with a playful smirk that surprised Blaise altogether. Draco, on the other hand, couldn't keep his hungry eyes off of Harry. A bead of sweat was falling off his forehead, just beside his scar, his hair was tousled more so from flying, his robes clung to his toned body gently because of the perspiration. Draco had never seen or smelt something as intoxicating and his body begged him for more - begged for him to touch the boy before himself.

"You, however," Harry said lopsidedly, sauntering towards Draco until they were mere inches apart and Draco thought his heart suddenly seized, "I expect you to put on a much better game for me than Chang, she may be a good flyer and all she's just not..."

"Not your type?" Blaise offered slyly, Harry shot him a glare before returning his intoxicating smirk to Draco who felt his knees go weak but his mask slid into place.

He crossed his arms and sneered, "Everybody in this school knows you and I are the only worthwhile match. That's why they always save us for last," Draco boosted, and it was true. Gryffindor vs. Slytherin always did seem to be the last match of every Quidditch season.

"Bollocks to the rest of the school, all I care about is you," Harry's smirk widened and he took one small step closer and an alluring look ghosted over in his eyes. Even Blaise seemed to be drawn in as he licked his lips, the way Harry held himself and just stood there tall and strong, looking slightly up at Draco with a mischievous grin. Nothing ever looked sexier to either of the Slytherins, "All I care about is you, me and our broomsticks," Harry finished firmly and then allowed his intense gaze to drop from Draco's lusting silver orbs and over to Blaise's goldfish expression., "Zabini," he nodded his head and then turned to leave up towards the Gryffindor Tower.

Draco was left breathless, to say the least, as he gulped all the pride he had left down and turned towards Blaise who was flushing, "I can see why you've got it in for him. Sexy, sneaky  little bugger, isn't he?" he said far-off, his eyes staring at the staircase where Harry had just disappeared.

Draco became automatically defensive, a low growl starting in the depths of his throat as he turned to Blaise and grabbed a fistful of his cloaks and pushed him hard against the opposing wall. "He's mine, don't you dare touch him," he growled.

"Woah, slow down there Malfoy! I can still look, but I won't touch!" he said in defence and received another glare before being released, "Now c'mon, Draco, let's talk about this whole Veela business," he said and led the way into a more secluded part of the castle - the Astronomy Tower.

Once the two were up there, Draco having talked in a low hush voice the entire way, he had finished his explanation of his heritage and what all had happened between him and Harry. Blaise stayed silent the entire time not interrupting, but taking it all in. "So you say he accosted you whilst on Prefect Duty?"

"Yes. Kind of. It certainly was not unwelcome, but still! What kind of acceptable way is that to approach somebody?" Draco stammered, his face slightly pink as he leaned his elbows on the ledge of the large Astronomy window sill. Blaise took a seat on it beside him and gave him a comforting smile.

"It's Potter's way of approaching somebody. C'mon, you must know him the best out of all of us over these years with how much you two have gone at it. You know Potter, he does things differently and he takes everything for face value. If he's got something to say, he says it and nothing's going to stop him. At least his way of approach got the point across," Blaise smirked, he was mentally trying to conjure up an image of Harry's accost during Draco's midnight rounds...of course he replaced Malfoy with himself.

"I'm just not sure what to do any more, Blaise," Draco admitted, sounding hopelessly lost, "I can feel this need and hunger so strongly nowadays that it's nearly unbearable. And I know what I want, I'm just not sure I really care about what I want any more as much as I care about what  _he_  wants as pathetic as that sounds," he spat to himself.

"That's not pathetic," Blaise retorted, but he didn't want to go as far as saying it was romantic, he knew his friend wouldn't be pleased to hear that right now.

"Either way, I think I'm rather glad he's my mate," he said, but the sour bitterness in his tone was still evident.

"Well then what's the problem? If you know what you want and he obviously knows what he wants, considering his pursuit of you, what's the problem?"

"What's the problem? In case you have not noticed there are quite a few problems in this scenario! For starters, he's a boy! Not just any boy, but The-Boy-Who-Bloody-Well-Lived! On top of that he is a Gryffindor and I'm a Slytherin. And do I need to even  _mention_  to you that I am a Malfoy? My Father is going to fillet me alive!" Draco whined, he had his arms crossed on the balcony now and his head rested between it.

He felt so distraught, and his emotions were crashing down around him. Never in his life can he recall feeling that much all at once, but he just couldn't stop the emotions from pouring now. All of his feelings for Harry that had been pent up over six years of false hate were coming out and he could barely control tears of frustration from falling.

Blaise looked on with a troubled expression, he understood the feud his best friend was having with himself. And he blamed most of it on Lucius Malfoy. "I say don't worry about the old man; it's not your choice who your mate is, right? So he's just going to have to deal with it, isn't he? So is the rest of the world!" he began rubbing Draco's tense shoulder comfortingly, "Listen, mate, I can see you've really fallen for him and I can see how. He's a pretty cunning bastard, that Potter. Should have been sorted into Slytherin if you ask me, and he's definitely not a bad looking bloke either. I can see now who you had in mind when I asked you who was the best looking Gryffindor all that time ago," he joked lightly, trying to ease up the situation. "But honestly, if Lucius or anybody else like the Weasel has a problem with whatever happens between you and Potter, they'll have to go through me first. Not to mention once they're through with me they've still got a full-blooded, moody, ponce Veela to deal with," he cheekily grinned, seeing Draco chuckle lowly in response to that.

"Thanks Blaise, really, thanks," Draco whispered, standing up straight now and taking a deep collective breath, smiling softly at his friend, "I just wish the circumstances were different, is all. I just wish he was sorted into Slytherin, but at least I am lucky enough that he's a guy," he added on a more cheerful note.

"There you go, count your blessings as they come!" Blaise winked and then jumped off of the Astronomy Tower. "Now I know of a party that'll be had on the Fifth Floor for Gryffindor's victory tonight,  _I_  need to go get ready so I can try to persuade Finnigan into a little tongue wrestling," he slyly smirked as Draco chuckled and shook his head.

"I guess I'll be expected to go to this one then?"

"Wouldn't want to keep Potter waiting, now would we?"

"Most definitely not," Draco agreed quickly with a slight blush, "But I do believe I have business to attend to first. I will be in Severus' quarters before coming back to the Common Room,'' he said and then gave Blaise another small smile before he felt the other man's arms wrap around him in a small hug. They didn't hug very often, but when they did Draco learned to cherish it.

"Thanks Blaise," Draco mumbled into his shoulder happily, he felt much better having all of that off his chest and sorted out.

"Don't think about it, you're my best mate and always will be and you'd better not forget that," Blaise affirmed him before the two shared another knowing smile before parting their ways.

Draco walked down to Severus' office feeling a lot better than he had that morning, he even allowed a bemused smirk to fall on his usually stoic features. He was glad to be cleared up on everything now and he knew what must be done. He needed to get with Potter but he most certainly wouldn't go running to him, no. He had too much pride in him for that and plus, him and Harry had been playing that game for six years now. He wasn't about to give up and lose just because he was falling in love with the boy! No, he would wait for Harry to come to him. He would hold off his sense's, bury the instinctual need and desirable want, and wait for Harry to make his next move.

"Severus, how have you been?" Draco asked as he walked in the man's office without knocking, closing the door softly behind him. He hadn't realized he had company as he came eye-to-eye with Professor Lupin smiling softly and gripping a cup of tea. "Lupin," Draco greeted coldly.

"Does it ever occur to you to knock, Draco? Nevertheless," Severus sighed, he was leaning back rather comfortingly in his chair behind his desk, "Would you like a cup of tea as well?" he asked. Draco knew this was all formality, he was used to it, Severus was a lot like himself when it came to keeping up a high class appearance. Severus just had a much more colder way of going about it.

"I cannot decline you, Severus, you must know that by now," Draco smirked, he sent a shiver through Remus' spine by doing so.

' _How is somebody so young so...old?_ ' was all that Remus was thinking as he sipped his tea, his leg crossed over his thigh.

"I also know enough about you by now to understand that you would not come see me without reason, even if I am your Godfather and deserve a visit every once and awhile," he sported a small smile which Draco was surprised to see, Severus rarely ever acted so nice in front of others and here the werewolf was sitting and he didn't seem to care, "So, what is it you need?"

"Very observant, Sev. I thought, if it wouldn't be much of a trouble, I could use your Floo network to Fire Call Lucius? I have some personal inquiry to make with him," Draco said nudging his head towards Severus' private dwellings to the left door in the room.

"Is this something I should worry about?" Severus asked immediately, though he showing no concern displayed in his voice.

"Not at all," Draco assured, and they shared quiet glances before Severus nodded his acceptance. Draco left the two Professor's to their own devices and went into the private rooms, shutting the door softly behind him.

A few minutes later, his face appeared in the fire of his Father's study where he knew Lucius would most likely be. And there he was, sitting at his desk writing a letter. Draco called him over and Lucius pulled a seat next to the fire. "How are your studies coming along, son?" Lucius asked immediately, in a cold withdrawn voice. It was the only voice Draco ever really heard from his Father, it didn't phase him any longer.

"They are coming along nicely. And here I would have thought you to jump all over me about my mate," Draco said pointedly, Lucius looked coolly at his son's head engulfed in magical flames.

"I knew you would come around to that matter sooner or later. So have you found her?"

"Yes, Father I have. It is a little more complicated than one might think so I am giving this time to develop in whichever way it will. I can firmly say that you will not be pleased with the results of which so I am Fire Calling you now to apologize in advance," Draco's voice was unwavering and strong, as it always must be when talking to his Father for fear of negative retribution.

Lucius raised an elegant eyebrow and crossed his arms, the Malfoy signet crest was reflecting the firelight on the breast of his cloak, "I cannot truly accept your apology when I do understand that it is only in your unavoidable nature. Be that as it may, I expect you to stay at the top of your class and hold true to our honour, whomever your mate is. And son, do write more often for your Mother becomes sick with worry. I take it you are using Severus' quarters for this call?" at Draco's nod he continued, "Give him my greetings and if that is all, Father has some business to attend to,"

"Of course, sorry for my interruption,"

"No apologies, son," Lucius quickly said, holding up his hand, "It is never in an interruption when the subject in case is you, Draco. Business with the Estate is just busier than usual, is all, 'Cissy is terribly exhausted and misses her dragon. We are excited to have you return home for the Beltane celebrations. Until then I must be of,"

Draco nodded and then bit his lower lip, "Lucius...Father...before you go, I just want to let you know that my mate is a boy," he mumbled, immediately regretting having admitted this. Lucius' face went cold and tightened up, his eyes narrowed in on his son.

"As I said, you cannot have avoided this outcome. Your Mother and I shall have to look into alternatives for child birthing for two Wizard's, there are some potions and rituals that can be done. We will find a way to continue the Malfoy line...but no need to worry, son, that is far in the future and does not concern you for now," Lucius cut himself off when he saw the distraught look adorning Draco's pale face.

"I will let you get back to business, Father. I must be leaving myself. Say hullo to Mother and that I dearly miss the Manor. I love you both,"

"We love you too, son," Lucius smiled softly and then swiftly ended the Fire Call.

On the other end, Draco left Severus' private quarters and came back to find him and Remus engaged in a light conversation, still sipping on their teas as they looked up at Draco expectantly. "Thank you, Sev,"

"Any time, Draco. Everything's alright at the Manor?"

"Always is. Lucius sends his salutations,"

"Very well then, is there anything else we can do for you today?" Severus asked, and Draco didn't miss his usage of the word 'we' including him and Professor Lupin in a collective.

Raising his eyebrow, Draco began to start towards the door, "No I think that is all, thanks. I'll be seeing you around Sev, Lupin," he nodded curtly and then left into the corridor.

Remus turned to Severus once they were alone, "You know it really does irk me sometimes," he said with a grin, "That boy's barely seventeen but he sounds like he's a hundred and five already!"

"Well yes it would because you do not know the meaning of dignity, Moony," Severus sneered.

Remus' mouth twitched into a grin, "Yet  _you;re_  still a slimy git, Sevvy," he teased, but silenced himself at the cold glare he got from his old friend.

Draco rushed himself down to the Slytherin Common Room and into his dormitory to find something to wear for the party that night. It had to be absolutely smashing, he wanted to blow the socks off of Harry and have him making all his moves on him...discretely, of course. He got himself silently ready with Blaise and then the two of them headed off to the Fifth Floor corridor to the Room of Requirment where Sixth and Seventh Years for all different Houses had already begun celebrating Gryffindor's victory.

Two out of three of the Golden Trio were there, but unfortunately Harry was nowhere to be seen. "Come to think of it...I never see Potter here," Blaise said with a frown after a moment, turning to see Draco's foul expression of displease.

"I should have known he wouldn't come, he hates crowds and all the attention he gets in them. I do not blame him," Draco sighed and took a quick look around the room which had been made up into something of a replicated large Common Room, there were people crowded everywhere. Including a pair of Gryffindor's sauntering over to them slowly whom Draco barely regarded, "Alas, we are here so we should enjoy ourselves, shall we?" he asked Blaise who was looking directly at the two boys walking towards them with a smirk.

"And enjoy ourselves we shall! Thomas, Finnigan, how are you fine men this evening?" Blaise chimed as the two joined them smirking, Draco had never really seen how devilish they looked up close but just by their initial expression he knew they could give a Grade B Slytherin a run for their money. He didn't even question when Blaise he become so openly accepting of Gryffindor's, he knew his friend had been coming to these sorts of parties for awhile now.

"Oh just fine, cracked open the Firewhisky and everything seems to get a little bit better, dont'cha think?" Seamus winked, his arm was linked around Dean's shoulders lazily and his thick Irish accent was slightly slurred.

"And you brought yourself a recruit then?" Dean smirked, he pulled his wand out of his pocket as Draco eyed him lazily with a raised eyebrow and Dean conjured him a glass of Firewhisky and handed it to the tall, gorgeous blonde. "Bottoms up, Malfoy," he said, taking a glass of his own and cheering Draco who proceeded to take a large gulp of the smooth, stinging substance.

"You've best got more of that for me, mates," Blaise said as Draco already felt himself a little bit lighter than when he had walked in the door.

"Of course we do, Zabini, we've got plenty more where that came from! C'mon, let's grab ourselves some cards, a table and some more of this!" Dean chimed, slushing around his drink with a grin.

Seamus rolled his eyes as they all followed Dean's lead, "I prefer some good ol' Irish malt meself, but I guess Firewhisky'll have to do for now!"

And that was the night Draco decided that Gryffindors, Harry already excluded, weren't all that bad.


	13. Heating Up

_"You expected me not to ask? You are the two hottest students at this school, and you actually expected me not to ask?"_

Winter eventually melted away into the first comings of what looked to be spring. Beltane was fast approaching and Harry knew that this meant one thing. Mating season was soon, and he hadn't anticipated something more in his life before. He had everything perfectly planned for the day of; the Quidditch Pitch was booked, his clothes were picked out, he had run over the plan in his head again and again. It was flawless.

But as he awoke on the first day of Spring, his nerves got the better of him. He felt like crawling back into bed and faking sick the entire Sunday, maybe he could get away with it. Alas, when a shouting Ron brought him around to his wits Harry dragged himself out of bed and got ready for the day. He walked down beside Ron biting his lip to the Great Hall for breakfast, knowing Draco would already be there.

He had read about it in books quite often about what would be happening mentally and physically for a Veela starting that day and for the next two weeks, and he couldn't say he wasn't excited. Upon sitting in their usual seats at the Gryffindor Table, Harry glanced across the Great Hall and his eyes met with liquid silver.

Draco was staring unwaveringly at him, Blaise nudging the blonde out of his stupor beside him. With a small, weak smile, Draco turned to his breakfast. Harry's heart did a little jump at the public smile, glad that the other boy was being a lot more open with their affection. They hadn't really spoken outside of Defence Against the Dark Arts since that time after the Quidditch game when Harry approached Draco. It was the last of Harry's games he was going to play, and now he knew he was in a intricate set of cat and mouse. He was the cat, Malfoy the mouse.

It was hot for the first day of spring, the sun beat down on Hogwarts unforgiving, most students dreaded their uniform's and left their cloaks forgotten in their dormitories. Ron was fanning himself with a napkin already and it was barely nine o'clock. "Mate, I just beg you not to drill us hard," he choked out.

"Hot day, good day for a hard practice," Harry smirked in mere thought of it, "We need to be ready to play in all conditions, so this'll be perfect to practice in. I'll just keep the Chasers doing lines on you, it'll just be like an hour long match," he assured him, and he groaned and took a large gulp of pumpkin juice.

"Have you both finished your Charms essay yet? You know Professor Flitwick said there were absolutely no exceptions on this one and Quidditch-"

"Yes, we  _know_ ," Harry rolled his eyes and then smiled apologetically, "Thanks 'Mione, but Ron and I finished it last night so we wouldn't have to worry about it today 'cause of practice,"

"Oh, well then...good," Hermione smiled gently and leaned over to peck Ron on the cheek and he smiled back at her before continuing on with his breakfast.

Seamus and Dean slid down in the spots left open next to Harry, grinning loosely. "Does anybody notice how bloody hot it is outside?" Seamus asked, Dean chortling after him.

"Can barely take the heat," Ron mumbled.

"Looks like Malfoy can't handle it either," Dean laughed, and every Gryffindor head in range turned to glance at the blonde. He was sweating lightly, like the rest of the student body, but somehow he managed to do it with class. He had a white blouse on rolled up past his elbows which rested on the table, his chin rested gently in his hands as his pointed, pale features perfectly reflected the sunlight from the enchanted ceiling. It wasn't his naturally good-looking, perfect poise and posture or the small sneer on his face Dean directed his comment at, however. It was blatantly obvious that there was something uncontrollable in those silver eyes and it wasn't just Harry who saw it, it was a combination of need, hunger and anger. It was strange for a lot of the Gryffindor's to see and recognize those emotions so thoroughly in Draco Malfoy, but they were absolutely indefinitely emitting from him and only three people in Hogwarts knew why.

"So it's not just me and the bugger's completely off his nut?" Ron quipped, eyeing the blonde oddly who didn't seem to notice and continued to stare over at them. Nobody knew which one he was staring at, but Harry felt a warm pit in his stomach with knowledge. That look everybody recognized in his eyes was for him. And he liked it.

"Today, yeah, he is pretty weird," Hermione agreed slowly, everybody was momentarily captivated by the Slytherin.

"He also looks bloody good!" Seamus chipped in cheerily, nudging Dean who considered it and nodded in agreement as Harry tried to ignore the jealousy in his stomach.

"Seamus, c'mon I'm eating here!" Ron whined.

"Mmm, sorry mate can't deny it," Seamus winked, Dean chuckling beside him as Harry watched this incredulously. Ron just shook it off, just like that he shook off their comments. Harry found himself inwardly thanking the other two Sixth Year boys for their lude, open behaviour when it came to things such as sexuality - it might make it easier to break it to Ron whenever he would have to about Malfoy.

Harry choked on his water. He had nearly forgot for a second there, what was happening that day. He had perfectly planned it to revolve around Draco, to make sure everything was just right to enhance his Veela senses. It was simple, but it was going to work and Harry was suddenly nervous again and had lost his appetite for eating.

"I'm gonna go get set-up for practice, see you guys out on the pitch," Harry said with a small smile before leaving the Gryffindor Table. He tried hard to ignore those eyes that followed him out of the Great Hall, but he couldn't help but get even hotter under that silver glare.

By the time he had walked from the castle to the Pitch, Harry was already sweating. It must have been a record breaking high temperature for the day, which made everything all the better. He didn't bother getting into his uniform, he knew he'd just end up taking it off for fear of heat stroke anyway. So he took off his cloak and threw it haphazardly on the stands, he unbuttoned the collar of his blouse and rolled it up.

He had the Quidditch balls set out near the edge of the Pitch, hoping the team would understand to pick them up as he was already in the air. He was joined not much later with the rest of the Gryffindor team, along with a few extra tag-alongs. Ginny sat with Lavender Brown and Pavarti in the stands, waving off the team as they set off for practice, all circling around Harry who stopped his flying to group in the middle of the Pitch.

"Good job last game on the Dopplebeater Defence, guys! And I'm pretty sure that was the best set of Hawkshead Attacking Formation Hogwarts has ever seen! But that's not enough! Beating Ravenclaw is one thing, but we've still got Hufflepuff..." Harry grinned at how every member of his team rolled their eyes, "...and Slytherin! What if Malfoy catches the Snitch, 'eh? Then we'll be done for, because you know they're great offence and usually are always upping us in scoring. The only reason we have ever won against those snakes is because I've caught the Snitch every time! Who says I'll even wanna save our sorry asses this time?" Harry joked, a few chuckles sounded but most of the team didn't look too satisfied. They fully understood Slytherin really was the better Quidditch team than they were, a lot more disciplined, too. They fell back on Harry's ability too often.

"So what's it for today, boss?" Seamus quipped, him asides from Harry being the only seemingly happy one to be practicing.

"Porskoff Ploy, I want you guys to be able to do that backwards while blindfolded like Petrova himself!" Harry said, his firm Captain's voice coming in now. For some reason, he got into leader mode and everybody else seemed to fall in line. "I want you Beaters to be practising the Bludger Backbeat with the Sloth Grip Roll, we can't just be sitting there like lumps on our brooms with a bludger hurtling towards our skulls, now can we?" everybody nodded in agreeance, though they were dreading practising these advanced moves in these weather conditions.

"And what'll you be doing, Cap'n?" Ron asked.

"The Plumpton Pass?" somebody had said, and everybody chortled knowing this had only be achieved once ever and that was when it was created by Roderick Plumpton of the Tutshill Tornado's. It was when the Seeker scoops the Golden Snitch up either of their sleeves.

Harry grinned widely, he yanked down his sleeves and buttoned them at the cuffs to make them tighter, "I guess I could," he said smugly, his team gave him a lopsided grin. "Now what are you all doing just lolllygagging around, get to it then!" he cheered, everybody immediately started off on the brooms to get into their positions.

Harry took more time this practice to drill his team, yelling orders this way and that, critiquing the way they flew and executed their moves, but he never let them or himself stop. He ignored how his muscles began to ache, how the sweat began to roll off of them. Because he knew a Veela somewhere inside the castle was going absolutely, hormonally insane with the amount of scent Harry was emitting. He drilled them harder when he thought of Draco, of how absolutely frazzled he was going to get the blonde.

It wasn't more than twenty minutes into practice that Harry saw a platinum head in the stands alongside a darker haired Slytherin. It was undeniably Malfoy and Zabini, and Harry's drilling got even harder after that. He kept his sleeves tightly on but unbuttoned more of his shirt. He shoot a look over at Malfoy who was flushed and sweating himself, his own blouse nearly fully unbuttoned as Blaise was looking intently between the two.

Harry noticed the hunger in Malfoy's eyes at breakfast had greatly intensified since then, and the need was so evident to him. He could have sworn he even saw him lick his lips at him. "Harry, c'mere a second!" Ron panted a yelp from his side of the Pitch. Harry flew over to him. "D'you think Malfoy's stealing strategies?"

"Does it look like we're making any strategies?"

"We're not doing  _any_  strategic runs today? Bloody hell mate, drills the whole time! We're gonne die of overheating here!" Ron whined, but then gulped heavily as Harry ducked out of the way, the Chasers were preparing for a twentieth Porskoff Ploy.

The rest of practice went without a hitch, but more of the team was questioning Malfoy's presence and Harry shrugged it off and kept drilling them harder with more questions. Nearing the end of it, Harry decided he might as well attempt the Plumpton Pass once, for hilarity's sake. As he soar through the air once catching eye of the Golden Snitch, Harry actually didn't believe he'd have good enough luck to do it in one swift try.

As the Snitch curled up his sleeve, Harry dismounted down onto the ground and his team was eventually beside him as well, all with awed wide faces. "Mate you-"

"I can't believe it,"

"Bloody impossible!"

"I swear, Puddlemere United will sign you the day your outta Hogwarts!"

Harry smiled nervously at them all, a light blush on his face as he put the balls back in their places of the Quidditch case. Once he finally shook them off, more than fifteen minutes later when they dispersed into the heavily needed cold showers, Harry took a second to stand in the cool breeze. He definitely underestimated the heat of the day, as he fully unbuttoned his shirt and slipped it off, putting it with his cloak on the stands before returning to the Quidditch box to pick up the heavy trunk and heave it away, he was interrupted by Ginny.

She was staring at Harry, biting her lip and eyeing his entire body haughtily. Harry's extremely toned body from Quidditch was lathered in a thin layer of perspiration from the intense session of flying, it had lasted nearly two hours. "Looks like you need a shower, Harry,"

"Oh, hey there Gin," Harry said, trying to hide his disappointment. Why did she have to get to him before Malfoy did - who was currently descending from the stands with Zabini in tow and a determined look on his face. "I, uhm yeah need a shower that's for sure...but y'know, I like to wait until..." Harry blushed deeply, his few close friends knew him well enough to know that he always waited until the locker rooms were empty before he showered. He was too embarrassed to do it in a group, he didn't know what would happen if he accidentally snuck a peak at one of his friends.

"Harry, you're so cute when you're shy," Ginny smiled sweetly, coming closer to him now. It didn't go unnoticed to Harry that Lavender and Pavarati were waiting in the distance nearer the castle, whispering in low tones and looking pointedly in their direction.

Harry ran a hand through his tousled, damp hair and an awkward laugh came out, he didn't like standing there with his shirt off in front of her. Not after all the times she kept trying to get with him. It was definitely too awkward for him, especially with Malfoy's intense gaze coming closer. Ginny, however, wasn't noticing this, "Harry, it's a pretty hot day for a practice like that, isn't it?"

"How very observant of you, Weaselette," Malfoy sneered, his blouse unbuttoned to the middle of his chest as Zabini couldn't tear his eyes off of Harry's nude chest, "There is most definitely something hot here, and I'm not talking about the weather," he purred, his eyes burning into Harry's who wavered back into his. The gaze was such a passionate, personal intensity there that Blaise nor Ginny could understand, and they never would. It was as if in that moment, with Draco's Veela senses on overload and his blood pumping vigorously through his heated veins, that the two boys could see through everything that the other was. All those years of lies, those masks, their pasts, their presents, they saw through it all and into the deepest depths of the persons they really were. And it was all in a glance...Harry thought that if he and Malfoy could have a real, long conversation that the two of them could do wonders together.

"Er, sure, whatever Malfoy. What do you want?" Ginny spat, coming to stand close to Harry and linked their arms together. Immediately Harry tensed, he knew that the Veela wouldn't like to see his mate openly shirtless with a girl attached to his arm.

"Nothing with _you_ ," Malfoy venomously growled, but then Blaise's hand was resting gently on his back between his shoulder blades and he immediately relaxed and took a deep steadying breath.

"You don't wanna keep Lavender and Pavarti waiting, Gin. I've gotta talk to Malfoy about something," Harry said, she looked at him with wide eyes and then scowled.

"Fine. Why does Zabini get to stay though?" she whined, much like how Ron did.

"Ginny," Harry said in his firm tone he used during drills to get his team motivated. Ginny scowled again and then detached herself from Harry before glaring at the Slytherin's and walking over to meet her friends.

Harry stood staring between Malfoy's intense silver eyes and to Zabini, who was looking hungrily at Harry. "Er...Draco, Zabini," he greeted, accidentally letting the blonde's first name come out. He looked absolutely ravishing, with his blouse unbuttoned and his hair tousled for once.

"Potter, don't you think it's a little risky to be walking around without your shirt on? You never know who might..." Draco trailed off his sentence and licked his lips, his eyes roaming over Harry's hard abdomen once again.

Harry felt his lips twitch into a small smirk, he always felt satisfied when he knew Draco was looking at him like that and wanting him so badly. Then he remembered Blaise's presence, and gave him a skeptical look. "Blaise knows, long story short," Draco mumbled flippantly in Blaise's direction.

"And is he your wing man because...as adventurous as some may say I am...I don't think I want him watching," Harry purred, finding that same confidence he had in his and Malfoy's other intimate meetings. He got more of it when Malfoy gulped visibly and his eyes narrowed even more.

"Are you sure? It'll be like I'm not even there," Blaise winked and was faced with Draco's growling face.

"Too bad I would have to hex your eyes off, Zabini," he snapped threateningly, Blaise grinned further at this.

"You expected me not to ask? You are the two hottest students at this school, and you actually expected me not to ask? Hah, and I thought you knew me Malfoy," Blaise joked but then that possessive gaze ghosted over those silver Veela eyes and Blaise backed up a step with a grin. "Alright, alright! I've seen all I need to see for now apparently, so I'll leave you two to it. Have fun," he winked again and gave Harry one more once over, "Damn Potter, I vote you never wear a shirt,"

Harry blushed a very deep crimson and very much felt like covering every inch of his skin at that moment from embarrassment as Draco growled deeply, "Blaise..." he began lowly.

"Alright, alright! I'm going!" Blaise put up his hands in defence before sauntering off towards the castle with too many mental images in his head that combined scar-head, his best friend, sweat and broomsticks.

And then Harry suddenly felt more confident, with it only being him and a hungry Veela begging to mate. "Enjoy the view from the stands, Draco?" he whispered, taking a step towards the blonde who tensed immediately.

"Good flying, Harry. I must say even I am impressed that you pulled off a Plumpton Pass," Draco drawled, he was trying impossibly hard to keep himself from ravishing Harry right there on the grass. This close, this naturally, Draco could see just how perfectly made Harry really was.

"Mmm...you'd be amazed what I could do with my  _broomstick_ ," Harry winked, licking his own lips which diverted Malfoy's gaze.

"I would like to know," Draco ground out shakily, bearly holding onto himself.

"Get my cloak and shirt, meet me in the Gryffindor locker room in five minutes," Harry merely ordered, and Draco found himself obeying.

Draco took his time collecting Harry's clothes and when he did, he slyly brought the sweaty shirt to his nostrils and inhaled the musky sense. It raked through his body and tickled his nerves, he shivered involuntarily and allowed himself to get lost in that smell for a few minutes. Every time he blinked his eyes that day, he saw shots of emerald.. He didn't know if it was five minutes, but Draco had waited as long as he could handle.

He made his way into the Quidditch dressing rooms where Harry had gone, all other team members had already left. Draco dropped the cloak and shirt he had been holding to the ground, there was cool steam radiating all over the locker room. He automatically followed his feet and senses towards that strong, over powering musky smell coming from the showers. He heard one of them still on, and all parts of his physical being told him to pursue the boy he knew was in there. Alone.

Instead, he grabbed a hold of all the sanity and strength he had left and sat down in front of a few of the lockers, folding Harry's cloak and shirt trying hard not to smell it again. ' _What is he going to do? He obviously knows what today is, he isn't that dense. But honestly...where is this going_?' Draco found himself wondering, distracting his Veela senses.

A loud click on the locker room door brought him back to reality, and he turned towards the entrance door. Harry was standing there smirking devilishly, his hand on the door lock which he just turned. His raven hair was wet and fell around his face, he was holding a towel loosely around his hips and water still dripped down his toned front. Draco's eyes widened considerably and his heart raced, his blood pumped.

"I was gonna say maybe we should talk considering what started happening today but..." Harry approached Draco now, who was sitting still on the bench, he stood in front of him quite aware of just how much of an animal he was turning into. Harry bent down and caressed the side of Draco's face with his calloused hand, droplets of water fell onto the blonde's cheeks as Harry brought his lips ghosting over the others. "...but this is just so much more fun," he smirked and reached out his tongue to gently scrap it across Draco's bottom lip.

Harry was surprised, though not displeased, with the reaction he received. Draco shot up from his seat and harshly threw the brunette up against the lockers, pinning him hard against him by holding down his shoulders. Draco ground his hips into Harry's towel covered pelvis and a low primal growl emitted from his throat.

Draco brought his lips hungrily to Harry's in a bruising, ferocious kiss. Their tongues laced around one another and moans built deep in their throats, pure eager fervour erupted as they both lost themselves in the most heated endearment either of them had ever imagined experiencing.

And to think, Spring was just beginning...


	14. Getting Close

_"Are we going to come out of this locker room holding hands or sneak out the back door?"_

All thought seeped out from Harry's head when Draco's lips met his so passionate and freely, he felt their energies connect and explode together in a flaming heat. He barely held his own mind to keep a tight grip on the towel he was wearing, not wanting to lose it in the moment.

Draco seemed to be in the same predicament of not thinking; his hands were now running blissfully up and down the moist skin of Harry's abdomen and back, exploring every inch of it he could and memorizing it with his fingertips. It felt like fire to Harry at every touch and he didn't want it to end. This is what they had both had been waiting for, for too long.

Draco disconnected their lips but before Harry could question the missing contact, he felt a tongue rake up his neck sending shivers through his body and he groaned, thrusting his head back into the locker closing his eyes tightly. Draco began to nip at Harry's earlobe, gently biting and licking in response. He moved onto sucking the tender skin beneath it, enjoying Harry's guttural moans in response.

Harry pushed himself hard into Draco, his one free hand dug into his clothed back until he remembered just exactly how they were dressed. Veela and mate or not, Harry became thoroughly embarassed not believing how he had just provoked the boy. Draco's senses felt the tension suddenly cloud the air and he pulled back to find Harry smiling gently at him.

"What is it?" Draco asked, quickly concerned even though his hands didn't pause in their ministrations. He fell across Harry's left nipple and with his glass-like fingernails began to gently pinch and tease it. Harry's eyes fluttered shut again as he moaned, pleasure sweeping through him again.

"N-nothing, nevermind..." Harry whispered, thoughts leaving him again as he pulled Draco closer to him, "Just please don't stop, Draco," he hissed, the blonde felt primal want course him and he continued his licking and sucking on Harry's neck.

They were positioned as they had been that night back in the entrance Hall, but the other way around this time. Draco began thrusting his hips hard into Harry, feeling the other boys hard member merely constricted by the towel only made him want more. Harry began slowly fumbling with the front of Draco's shirt, not remembering having dropped his towel at this point, and undid the fastenings on his blouse. He pushed it off onto the ground and took a moment to back up and look over the blonde.

They stood there before one another, their eyes roaming each others body and coming back up to meet, "Draco...you're beautiful," Harry whispered in disbelief at the utter perfection of the man in front of him, he reached out and touched an angel, just like he had been yearning to for so long. His fingertips ghosting across Draco's chest made the blonde sigh contentedly, he closed his eyes and allowed Harry to explore for awhile as he memorized the contours of his body. 

And then Harry's hands rested on Draco's trousers and a smirk came into place, he moved closer to the boy and gently licked up his neck as had been done earlier to him. " _Harry_ ," Draco hissed, thrusting hard into him only to be pushed gently back by Harry's hand on his chest. When Draco looked at Harry's eyes, he saw mischevious passion in them like he had during many of their other meetings. He liked this Harry a lot, just as much as he liked timid Harry.

"Draco, I think you should lose..." Harry smirked and raised his eyebrow as he looked down at the boys pants, "those,"

Draco breathed deeply, _'Is this really happening? Does he want this?_ ' he asked himself and then he felt his pants around his ankles and he looked up in wide surprise at Harry's face. He was looking pointedly down at Draco's silk, emerald boxers with a small snigger. "Silk? Really, Draco?" he laughed and Draco found himself laughing with him.

"What, they're comfortable!" he smirked largely.

"Either way, that's not what I was looking for," Harry whispered seductively and soon had Draco's boxers falling to the floor as well. Then he grasped the others shoulders and quickly switched their position so that Draco's back was against the lockers and Harry was on his knees looking upwards at him through large emerald eyes.

Draco never thought he had seen something more gorgeous and breath-taking, looking down at his mate as his hand gently caressed the side of his face. "Harry, you don't have to," he whispered gently, but then gasped loudly and threw his head backwards as Harry's hand gripped the base of Draco tightly.

"I know I don't. But I want to," Harry whispered before enveloping the large member fully into his mouth. Even though he had never done it, even though this was a completely foreign area to him, he just knew what he was doing, he knew how to manoeuvre himself, as if it was second nature with Draco. With anybody else, he knew it would be a whole other story. 

At the touch of wet, heat Draco was moaning and fisting his hands through Harry's messy raven hair. He was lost and he didn't know for how long, all he knew was that Harry was vastly administrating his mouth and hand around Draco's erect member. The Veela thought he was going to faint, he would come so close to the edge and then Harry would slow down considerably, as if he _felt_ how close Draco was. It was more than fifteen minutes before Harry gave into his own curiusity and want to hear Draco moaning louder and didn't slow down.

"Oh fuuuck, Harry..." Draco moaned, he couldn't tear his eyes off of Harry's which were looking back up at him. The boys tongue was swirling and sucking around Draco's erection, his hand fisted tightly at the base, "Harry, oh Gods, Merlin...fuck!" Draco was losing all coherency. Harry bobbed his head quicker, it was strange to be doing this but he was enjoying the sounds the Veela was making and the feeling of the length in the depths of his throat, "Harry, I'm gonna...oh Merlin, Harry...I'm gonna cum..please, oooh!" Draco moaned loudly now, losing himself in the sensation.

"Mmokay," Harry mumbled the best he could around the girth and Draco had never heard something more attractive as he exploded his seed into Harry's ready mouth.

"Harry!" yelled Draco as he came and then relaxed his body against the lockers as Harry swallowed and stood up with a grin, wiping the corners of his salivated mouth with the back of his hand.

"Hmm...like it?" Harry smirked, advancing close to Draco and pressing his body hard against his and only then did he realize that he was naked with him as well.

"I've been waiting for that for weeks," Draco groaned, "Months. Years. Harry, I don't think anything I have ever done has felt so bloody good," he flushed, Harry smiled gently at him and caressed the side of his face.

"Good, I erm...was kind of nervous," he confessed, "I wasn't even sure what I was going to do but...uhm...I-I just know I really like..uhm.." he was a deep crimson now.

"Driving me insane?" Draco chuckled and fully brought Harry into his arms, wrapping around him. He felt Harry's hard erection against his upper thigh as Harry hugged back, and he found that his own didn't soften even though he had just released himself. "Harry...I never knew you had so much _Slytherin_ in you but the way you have been acting these past few weeks-"

"You know I was supposed to be sorted into Slytherin?" Harry interrupted, at Draco's questioning expression he chuckled, "I talked the Sorting Hat out of it because a very certain new Slytherin was being quite the snob," he smirked.

"Interesting story. Was that certain Slytherin cute at least?"

"I don't think cute's the word...but we could use that if you'd like," Harry teased, he was absently twirling his fingers around platinum hair. Draco was looking adoringly down at Harry but then his silver eyes flickered with heat again and he roughly grabbed Harry's shoulders.

"You may have been chosen to be in Slytherin..."

"But you're their Prince," Harry whispered and Draco's smirk widened, he flipped Harry onto his back reversing their position a third time. The blonde brought them back together in a bruising kiss, he tasted Harry's sweat and his own seed in it and his erection pushed up against Harry's thigh. He ground themselves together and unlaced himself from Harry to drop before him on the floor.

Harry's eyes went wide but he lost all sensible thought as he felt Draco returning the favour of what he had just done a moment ago.

Twenty minutes later, the two boys were lying on the cold stone floor of the locker rooms, sweat beading down their bodies as Harry lay his head on Draco's chest with the blonde gently fumbling with his thick raven hair. Harry was making small, light circles on Draco's lower chest, both oddly comfortable with their nudity together. They had been dreaming about it for weeks, months on end.

"So what does this mean?" Draco quipped.

"What?"

"Harry, please don't play Hufflepuff with me," Draco rolled his eyes snuggling the boy closer and inhaling his thick musky scent, "Are we going to come out of this locker room holding hands or sneak out the back door?" he joked lightly, not realizing how very true his sentence had been.

Harry shifted uncomfortably, he didn't like this part. He had been playing that fairytale of never having to leave those locker rooms at all. "I-I don't know. What d'you think?"

"I do not like having to hide this, whatever it may be," Draco drawled lightly, "And it may be whatever you wish it to, Harry. I am honestly quite...honoured you've given me this much already. To tell you the truth, you were one of the last persons I expected to be my mate," he finished flushing.

"Is that why it took you so impossibly long to get it through your thick skull?" Harry grinned and then sighed heavily, "Sorry...I should have just come out and said that I knew everything,"

"I am kind of glad you did not," Draco admitted, "I had fun, albeit frustrating as it was, in the process of this," he was gently rubbing Harry's back now.

After a few minuets of silence, Harry began firmly, "I want you to be mine and only mine, Draco. I'm not too sure how I feel about you but...I know I like you. A lot. I-I know that sounds ridiculous 'cause we've hardly even had a full, decent conversation but...being with you feels so right and urgh, I'm rambling and I should really learn to shut my trap but...that's what I want," he was looking up at a strange angle now, craning his neck to look into Draco's silvery eyes as the boy looked back.

"Harry, even if I could be with anybody else I would not want to be. I have everything a man could ask for right here," he merely said, and then bent down to kiss Harry's forehead where his infamous scar lay.

To Harry this wasn't just a gesture, but one of the most intimate things a person had ever done to him. His scar was always looked upon in public, it was what made him what people thought he was, and when Draco had kissed it he felt their raw connection and the feeling that Draco knew him better than those people.

"W-will you be my boyfriend?" Harry stuttered unsure of himself, but then at the large smile that graced Draco's gentle face all of the concern left Harry.

"I would like nothing more than that," he whispered and bent down to kiss his cheek this time, he honestly couldn't get enough, "And what of Granger and the Weasel?"

"That's _Hermione_ and  _Ron_ ," Harry corrected.

"Well Hermione and...Weasley," Draco bargained slowly, there was nothing that could ever make him like that redhead, "What are we to do about them? I take it you have not told them of my condition?"

"Condition? Draco don't say it like that, it's who you are not some kinda disease," Harry scoffed, "And I, er, don't think we should tell them. I mean eventually yes but...can we, I mean, can you not..."

"I can keep my hands to myself, Potter," Draco snapped but quickly held Harry tighter, "Now that I've known what you've felt like it may be more difficult, but I am still a Malfoy and I can still show some restraint thank you very much,"

"Sorry...but if it's alright with you I would like to wait until we're...mated to tell them," Harry finished, gulping the huge lump that had at some point formed in his throat.

"Whatever you wish. I expected absolute rejection coming here today, following my instincts. But I never knew you would actually wish to go through with mating with me. But I'll take whatever you give me, Harry. But may I ask why you want to wait if in the end they are to find out anyway?"

"Because, erm, after mating I know we will be...heavily connected and, uhm, then there's absolutely no way they could talk me out of it," Harry mumbled, blushing.

"Talk you out of it?" Draco repeated slowly.

"Not like I'd even listen to them though!" Harry quickly said, then he brought himself up on his elbows to look fully onto Draco's face, he looked so peaceful in that moment, he could have never imagined Malfoy looking as he did now,, "I want to be here and nothing's going to change that. Like I said before, it just feels right to me. It's just that if we let everybody know after we've mated, then I think it'll make the break on them more realistic. Then Ron won't get as irrational as he could. I just think it'd be a better time," Harry concluded, he couldn't quite describe his best friend's attitude but he knew he wouldn't react well to this new development.

"Of course," Draco agreed, "And thank you, Harry. For everything,"

"Er, no need to thank. It's not like you're dragging me here ball and chain or something..." Harry awkwardly laughed, "Although I think I kinda might have forced myself on you at some points. Sorry about that,"

"I think it was needed," Draco smirked and propped himself on his elbows as well to gently peck Harry on the lips, both of them smiled warmly.

"As much as I like being here, I think I'd better go," Harry sighed, untangling himself from the blonde and retrieving his forgotten towel, wrapping it around him again as he stood. He held out his free hand to Draco who took it and stood as well.

"Why the rush?" he asked, not wanting to be parted from his mate so soon.

"Hermione and Ron'll be wondering where I am and Ginny's probably put them on high alert, probably thinks you and Zabini ambushed me," Harry snorted.

"That red-headed bitch better watch herself," Draco hissed, before retrieving his clothing and slowly putting the pieces back on it.

"Draco! Don't call her that!" Harry scolded, but he understood what the blonde was talking about. Before they disappeared into the locker rooms, it must have driven the Veela in Draco insane to have Ginny hitting on him _again_.

"I don't think this is what Weaselette thought I wanted to do with you," Draco smirked, Harry approached the boy now fully clothed as he still wore his towel around his waist and smiled gently, locking their lips before parting.

"No, I doubt she did," he grinned and then frowned, "If you go now then nobody will see us leaving together. I still gotta, erm, clean-up again and get dressed so..."

"So I will see you later then Harry," Draco finished for him with a small disappointment, closing the distance between them and wrapping the boy in his arms one more time. He smelled that musky scent one more time before Harry leaned up and kissed him deeply. Draco pulled back and smiled gently, pushing Harry's raven fringe out of his intense emerald eyes.

"Later, Draco," Harry sadly said and then felt Draco disconnect fully from him and he immediately wanted his warmth on him again. Just as Draco unlocked the locker room door and sent Harry a small smile back at him before fully leaving he ran up from behind and embraced him hard enough to knock the air out of his lungs. "Meet me Monday night after dinner in the Room of Requirment?" Harry asked, pecking Draco's cheek and releasing him.

"It's a date," Draco smiled and with that he was gone, leaving Harry still in his towel.

Once he was finished showering and getting dressed, Harry grabbed his broom and made quickly to walk all the way up those many staircases to the Gryffindor Tower. Upon his arrival, Hermione and Ron were at his side with Ginny in the background looking on worriedly.

"Where have you been?"

"Did Malfoy hurt you?"

"I saw Zabini a half hour ago on the Third Floor but Malfoy wasn't there and you weren't around and..." Ginny quickly began explaining in a rush.

Harry put up his hands with a bright, wide smile. "Malfoy and I were just talking, s'all," he merely said with a shrug and went to go and collapse on the Common Room couch, the three were quickly sitting around him with curious and worried looks.

"Just talking? Are you sure he didn't hurt you or anything?" Ron asked slowly.

"What could Malfoy have to do with you?" Ginny put in as Hermione just sat looking at Harry's bright, satisfied smile and she automatically knew too much for her own good.

"Nothing, just wanted to talk," Harry smiled in reassurance, Ginny looked unsettled but didn't say anything further.

"I don't get it mate, what's with all this Malfoy business lately?" Ron quipped wearily.

Harry shrugged once more as his smile widened, "As I said before; Malfoy's kinda nice...once you get him alone,"


	15. Confessing

_"Harry, are you Malfoy's mate?"_

It was hard to hide his utter, pure happiness as Monday morning came around. Harry got ready singing a nonsensical tune in his head as a little skip was added to his step. As he, Ron and Hermione made their way down to the dungeons for Potions class after breakfast, he noticed them sending him sly looks.

"Oh c'mon guys, what's up with you today?" Harry finally asked.

They exchanged a quick look before blushing, "Nothing just...wondering what's got you in such a good mood, s'all," Ron shrugged as if it meant nothing to him, but Harry could tell he was more than genuinly interested.

"Right well whatever you two are on about you don't gotta worry," Harry winked uncharacteristically and led the way into Professor Snape's classroom. It seemed as though the Trio were slow upon arriving to their first lesson of the week as there wasn't many seats left. Harry was about to make his way to the front of the classroom where he saw a seat opening beside none other than Draco, he smiled broadly but was quickly nudged out of the way by Ron.

"It's alright mate, I'll seat there. You can be with 'Mione today at the back," Ron sighed.

"No, really! You should sit with your girlfriend, I don't-" Harry quickly began, he knew that Draco had turned in his seat to watch with slight amusement.

Ron held up his hand, "I think you've suffered enough of Malfoy lately," he merely said and dragged his things over to plump down beside Draco who didn't even regard his presence.

Harry found himself wanting to frown and walk over there and force Ron out of his seat, but he settled in the back with Hermione instead as she kept sending him sidelong glances. "I asked Ron to do that you know," she whispered a little ways into Snape's dull lecture on the properties of rare Asian Mandrake roots.

"Hmm? To do what?" Harry asked, trying hard to actually pay attention once in Potions class.

"To sit beside Malfoy," Hermione responded and blushed at Harry's look on deep inquiry, "I-I wanted to talk to you,"

"Couldn't it wait until after class?" he snapped and then bit his lip, "Er, sorry but...what do you need, Hermione?" he asked softer.

Hermione collected herself and scooted her seat closer to Harry, "Firstly, why do you want to sit beside Malfoy so badly?" she asked, catching the longing look Harry kept sending towards the front of the room.

He immediately blushed and directed his attentions back down at his notes scribbled carelessly across his parchment, "I don't. I just don't mind half as much as I know Ron does," he shrugged, trying to make it seem like not a big deal.

"Harry. I've known you for six years and I'm not that blind," Hermione said in her own defence, "You like him, don't you? You have ever since December," she stated the last part, not even as if it were a question.

Harry looked up at her and in her hazel eyes say that she did most definitely know, he saw the clarity there and wished that one of his best friends wasn't so observant. He was glad Ron was still, in laymen's terms, a social doorknob.

"I-I, er..." Harry sighed and heaved his shoulders giving in, "Since before December, 'Mione. Truthfully, I don't think I ever hated him,"

"Harry, how can you honestly say that? With the way you two always acted! And he is such an arrogant-"

"I know, and I'm not denying that he still is! All I'm saying is that I don't think I mind it...well, I do but..." Harry felt like there was nothing that he could say that would make her understand what he felt, "We have a lot in common. He keeps up a mask in front of everybody, he plays a role he has to play to stay alive during this War. If it weren't for being a Malfoy, everybody would see Draco's real side like I do. I actually feel bad for him because I think he's really only got me and Zabini," he sighed and gave up on listening to Snape, dropped his quill and buried his face in his hands out of mere frustration. He feared Hermione's reaction, but she seemed to be taking it at least rationally.

Hermione reached out and grasped Harry's hand, bringing it below the desk to hold it comfortingly. "How much do you like him?" she whispered.

Harry looked up at her with something like an unwanted sorrow in his eyes and Hermione could understand why, "I-I think I may be falling in love with him," he responded brokenly.

"Oh, Harry...and how does he feel about you?" Hermione took this time to glance up at the front of the class where her boyfriend sat grumbling beside Malfoy and noticed the blonde to be barely paying attention to Professor Snape who stalked the classroom as he spoke. He had his head slightly cocked to the back of the room, and his eyes were half-closed as he seemed to be listening to them...but he couldn't hear them whisper from that far, could he?

"I think he feels the same way. Well, he told me he was falling for me and...it's a little more complicated than just mere attraction, 'Mione," Harry sighed, might as well come out with it all at once.

"What do you mean? He's not forcing you to do anything, is he? Because Merlin help him if he is Harry!" Hermione growled protectively, acting like the mother hen she always felt she was towards the brunette.

"No, of course he isn't! I was actually kinda forcing  _him_  at first," Harry blushed a deep crimson red and felt Hermione's hand on him slacken, he grasped hers back tighter now at fear of it being pulled away completely.

"Oh well, that, er..why?" she was lost now, that wasn't like Harry to do something like that, not like him at all.

"Because he wasn't, uhm, getting the picture," Harry blushed even harder now. He couldn't just leave her like that and he knew he'd have to come out with the full hard truth sooner or later, but he'd avoid it the best he could for as long as he could. Which frankly, wasn't long at all.

"Getting what picture? Why didn't you just tell him you liked him? Told him you thought he was hot or..."

"Hermione, Draco's a Veela," Harry blurted out and felt her go rigid beside him, he looked to the front of the classroom where Draco wasn't taking any notes and was instead seated perfectly in his chair to be able to easily glance back at them. He did and their eyes met for a moment before Draco smiled sadly and looked back to the front again.

"He's a, a what?" she stuttered finally.

"A Veela, full-blooded one, too," Harry sighed, "I figured it out and that's what I was spending on my time in the library on. I noticed all his changes, the ones you said you didn't even notice. I found that so strange, so I wanted to figure out what was wrong with him...or me, or whatever,"

Hermione took this all in and took a deep breath before turning to her best friend, "Harry, are you Malfoy's mate?" she questioned.

Harry looked away from her, he couldn't admit it in front of her. He didn't want to see the refusal in her eyes, so instead he stared coldly into the desktop in front of himself and nodded slowly.

"You're his mate...and it's Spring, and...you mated with him yesterday? Harry, by Merlin tell me you didn't mate with him yet!" Hermione screeched as lowly as she could.

"No! No I didn't, not yet,"

"Not yet? Harry have you any idea what you are getting yourself into?" she hissed.

"Yes, I do 'Mione. I spent hours researching it all on my own. As I said I am falling in love with him, though I'm not quite there yet and what do you propose I do? Refuse to mate with him and let him lose the will to live?" Harry snapped, it most certainly wasn't an option to him. And on the plus side, he wanted fully to be mated to the blonde, just not right away. He wanted to ease their way into it, so he could at least feel like their relationship was more than sex.

"Harry...what have you let him do?" she asked concernedly, she didn't want her friend getting into things he couldn't handle.

Harry was thoroughly blushing now and couldn't tear his eyes off the table, "I said before 'Mione, I did most of the pushing here. He refused to recognize me as his mate first so I had to get...persuasive," he blushed more, "We've kissed and - oh Gods so much more," he finished sighing, throwing his hands on his face again. He just couldn't look over at Hermione, he didn't want to see her pure disapproval of his actions. Of how tainted he was now because of the things he had done with Draco.

"How much more, Harry?" Hermione asked carefully.

"We, erm, went down on each other yesterday," Harry bit his lip.

Hermione immediately screeched loud enough for Snape to be notified, he stalked over to their direction and scowled down at the two who blushed and looked away in shame, "Is there anything either of you would like to share with the class?" he hissed.

"No, sir," Harry responded squeakily.

"Five points from Gryffindor for dutifully interrupted my class...again," Snape added with malice and turned on his heel to stalk the room once again, continuing his cold, boring lecture. Harry couldn't bet a Sickle on what the Professor was talking about, he had absolutely no idea.

"Sorry, I just didn't expect you to say it like that," Hermione blushed after a few minutes and then found Harry's hand again and held it tightly. Harry looked up at her and saw her smiling gently.

"Don't worry, Harry. It'll work itself out, it always does," Hermione promised, and Harry smiled in return.

"Thanks 'Mione, it means a lot," he said truthfully, he had never expected her to accept all of that so easily - but then again he knew Ron would be a different story altogether, "It means a lot to me and to Draco," he added.

"So what are you two, have you decided upon it?" she asked, mainly out of curiosity at this point.

"Er, we're boyfriends," Harry blushed again, he realized that Snape's lecture was coming to an end as students were putting their quills down.

"Really? Well congratulations, I hope it, erm, works out," Hermione smiled and released Harry's hand before turning her attention to the front of the class again. Harry smiled lightly and found himself not as worried as he had been at the beginning of the class.

Now that the lecture part of the lesson was over, they were to be brewing a gentle Pain Reliever Potion that's active ingredient was that rare Asian Mandrake root. Harry was thankful Hermione was his partner today, knowing she had read ahead in the lesson and would be able to brew it dismally. Then again, Malfoy never brewed a Potion wrong.

He and Hermione worked through the class in silence mostly, but she kept sending him reassuring smiles that warmed him up a little bit. It made him think that maybe coming out with Draco wouldn't be such a bad thing after all.

Then there was a small explosion from the front of the room and Harry turned to see Ron swearing and glaring into his cauldron as the black smoke emitted from it. He smirked knowingly, Ron never having a hand for the subject much like himself Draco, instead of scowling and retorting some kind of comment about Ron's intelligence, leaned over to peer inside and began to speak through clenched teeth.

"If we dice up some Sea Ginger and add it, it should neutralize the mistake," Draco explained tightly, feeling a pair of emerald eyes on the back of his head he tried to ignore and began dicing some Sea Ginger. He was also trying hard to ignore Ron's incredulous gaze.

"Er, how does it do that?" Ron questioned, instead of snarling back.

"Because..." Draco began heatedly but took a deep, collecting breath, "Because Sea Ginger has strong qualities in its roots that act opposite of the Romanian Seaweed you put in there by mistake. Henceforth it will neutralize your mistake, and we can start from where we left off with no after effects because Sea Ginger won't interfere with any of the other ingredients," he explained.

Ron blinked a few times before nodding gently and mumbling, "Thanks Malfoy," which surprised everybody in the class that heard it.

The rest passed without incident and as the bell rang, Harry said he had to stay back to talk to Snape about something. Hermione nodded knowingly and dragged a questioning Ron out of the classroom with the herd of students. Harry took time collecting his things and as Draco walked to leave out of the classroom he grabbed his forearm and stopped him. "Potter," he greeted, being as there was still a few dawdling students left in the classroom.

"Malfoy, could we talk?" Harry asked and only received a curt nod, so he led the way out of the classroom and down the dungeons corridor to a deserted classroom. He quickly ran inside and closed the door behind him and Draco.

As soon as they were sure they were alone, Draco threw Harry up against the door he had just closed and brought their lips together heatedly. Harry groaned and wrapped his arms around the boy and kissed him back, he had been thinking about it all morning. After a few minutes of their tongues moving against one another, Harry pulled back to take a deep, staggering breath and smiled.

"Thanks for helping Ron today," he whispered, ducking in and pecking Draco's cheek.

"I thought you would appreciate it," Draco snarled, obviously not liking having to offer his help civilly to the redhead. Harry's smile broadened which, to Draco, made the effort all worthwhile.

"I did. Thanks again," Harry kissed him again on the lips for a short moment, "Hermione knows and don't ask how or why but she knows and she...is okay with it," he finished with a raised eyebrow, he still couldn't quite believe it himself.

"Good, I do not want you hurting more than you have to over all of this. Over me," Draco frowned gently but forgot completely about it as Harry's lips met his own again, if it was just for a moment.

"Ron'll start asking questions to where I've gone..." Harry sighed, detaching himself from Draco and kissing him once more, "I'll see you tonight after dinner though,"

"Yes, tonight after dinner," Draco smiled brightly as Harry bid his goodbyes and left him alone in the empty classroom.

Draco took a moment to collect himself here and he realized that he had just been kissing Harry Potter. His smile widened as he thought to himself that he had never been happier in his entire life.


	16. You're Mine

_"I always have and I always will be in love with you. I need you to know that,"_

There was a much lighter feeling in the air as Harry skipped down to dinner in the Great Hall that evening, he was glad that Hermione was on his side with his relationship with Draco. At least that would make the eventual battle with Draco and the rest of the world much easier. She sat beside him this meal time instead of beside Ron, who hadn't arrived from the Common Room yet.

"You've really got it in for him, don't you?" Hermione asked in a whisper, Harry had been leaning on his elbows and staring across the Hall at the Slytherin Table with a small, peaceful smile on the corner of his lips.

"I think yes Hermione, I definitely do," Harry responded truthfully, and it felt so good to say it out loud now. It made him a lot more comfortable with the idea, and it made their relationship seem more worthwhile and real.

"Don't you think you should at least try to hide it?" she asked concernedly, she was worried about the reaction of the rest of the school. Harry already went through so much bad publicity stunts, that this entire situation was just begging for another one.

"Hide what?" Ron quipped cheerfully, sitting down across from his girlfriend after pecking her lightly on the cheek.

Harry blushed and tore his eyes away from Draco and down at his plate, "Nothin', just kinda nervous about the game this Saturday," he shrugged, referring to the Qudditch match.

"You? Nervous about our game against Hufflepuff? Hah!" Ron chortled, "When has anybody _not_ beaten Hufflepuff, mate?" he clapped Harry on the shoulder and began piling chicken legs onto his plate.

"Right, well they've been practising a lot this year," Harry mumbled, ignoring Hermione's stern look from his right. "So does anybody remember what we're doing in Defence tomorrow?" he changed the subject slyly.

"We won't be doing any more practical work," Ron said with a small frown but then brightened up, "Remember, mate? We're having that Duelling Competition the Tuesday after this! Remus'll be posting the order of partners tomorrow on the bulletin...I bet you and Malfoy are last," he grinned.

"Why would you say that?"

"For a few reasons, but mostly because it will be the most anticipated fight," Hermione added in, this was very true in itself. Ever since Harry and Draco's duel during their first Defence Against the Dark Art's lesson as partners, everybody had become enthralled with watching them as much as possible during their partner sessions.

"And 'cause Lupin knows there'll be a sure mess to fix up afterwards," Ron winked and chuckled lightly.

"What makes you say that?" Harry quipped.

Ron looked at him incredulously for a second before grinning, "You and Malfoy allowed to go at each other with anything but Unforgiveable's? We're allowed using advanced dark magic for these duels, as long as they're not illegal, remember? That's why Remus gave us so much time to get to know our partner's reactions," he shrugged as if it were nothing but it was so much more to Harry.

He couldn't lose in front of the class to Draco, for some reason the pride inside him wouldn't let him. And he knew it'd be the same for Draco and he began smirking - he did always enjoy duelling with him because it always got his blood pumping. Harry knew he'd have to get a lot of extra studying of hexes in before the partner Duels happened next Tuesday. At least it would distract himself from attempting to spend all his free time sneaking off to be with Draco.

When dinner neared to the end, Harry felt Draco's steely silver gaze on him and he looked up from across the Hall and sent his secret lover a half-smile. Draco cocked his head pointedly at the door and then turned to his friends whispering something before standing up and striding out of the Great Hall. Harry decided that he was finished with his meal.

"I'm gonna go up to the library for awhile...look up some spells I could use next Tuesday," Harry announced, ignoring Hermione's knowing look.

"Gonna kick Malfoy's arse?"

"Always do," Harry grinned and then left the Great Hall as fast as he feet would take him without arousing attention from the other students. He climbed the stairs two at a time till the Fifth Floor, excitement boiling in him to see Draco. It was pathetic, they had been together barely two days but Harry already couldn't get enough of him.

"Took you long enough," Draco drawled as Harry entered the Room of Requirment, the door was slammed shut and he was pushed hard up against in. He gasped as Draco's mouth immediately began suckling on the nape of Harry's neck, and hard. He continued his minstrations upwards, licking, biting, sucking as Harry groaned and thrived beneath him. His hands were grasping Draco's backside now, pulling his pelvis towards hiw own in a harsh thrust. Harry was glad that Draco was a male instead of female, because he liked not having to worry about being too hard with him when it came to this.

Draco grinded Harry hard into the door, leaving the brunette barely able to breathe. "Speak to me in Parseltongue," the blonde hissed into Harry's ear before nipping it playfully.

"Huh? Parselt-"

"Just do it, Potter," Draco growled verociously, grinding Harry extermely hard this time into the door that Harry thought it might have bruised his lower back. And then the blonde turned on all the Veela powers he could, and having never done this before it was based off of instincts. Harry felt immediately washed over with lust and pure passion for the boy pressed hard up against him and he gasped loudly. "Speak Parseltongue now, Potter," Draco demanded.

Harry's knees went weak and he couldn't think about anything any more, " _Ssshia ssssheeesssseith_ ," he hissed to Draco, having said 'Please give me more,' even though he knew the blonde couldn't understand.

"Again, Harry, please," Draco moaned deeply and Harry felt the low rumble in the blonde's throat and felt his member throbbing hard up against the constrictions of his slacks. Draco's hands were suddenly ravaging up Harry's shirt, toying with his nipples and making him lose absolute coherency with the world around him.

" _Ssssshesssh, ssssssh_ ," Harry continued hissing for a few minutes, and even he had no idea what he was saying any more only that he was speaking Parselmouth for Draco and it was turning the Veela on incredibly. He thrust into Harry harder and faster, until they both came so close to the brink of orgasms and then he withdrew himself completely from Harry who blinked a few times to regain himself.

"Come, let's sit," Draco said with a beautiful, porcelain smile as he offered his hand to Harry who took it and allowed his fingers to entangle in familiar warmth.

Harry took a look around the Room to see it was a small version of the Slytherin Common Room and smirked to himself, of course Draco would have chosen to make the room into this. He was led over to the couch in front of an unlit mantle and sat down beside Draco. Harry wrapped his arms around his boyfriend and snuggled close to him, kissing the top of his head. "Why'd you stop?" Harry asked with a pout.

"Because I promised Pansy and Blaise I would help them with Potions tonight," Draco grumbled, "And I wanted to give you something before I had to leave," he said, and then rummaged through his cloak pockets until he pulled out something closed tight in his palm.

"Oh, you don't have to give me anything, erm..." Harry blushed, he didn't want gifts it always made him feel awkward because he didn't know what to say or do with most of them.

"I know I don't, but I want to. I want you to wear this all the time so that you always know who you belong to," Draco smiled and Harry was about to retort from being treated like an object but quickly decided against it realizing he didn't quite mind being 'owned' by Draco. He blushed despite himself. Draco revealed what was in his palm and dangled it before Harry's face, it was a silver chain with an exquisite silver dragon wrapped around a sword as a large pendant. On the middle of the sword, the vocal point of the piece of jewellery, was a shining 'DM'. Harry found himself blushing and smiling at the gift all at once, it was quite beautiful.

"Father gave it to me as a birth gift, I have had it my entire life. I used to always wear it, but once I became a Veela I decided I would give it to my mate. Because I knew my mate was somebody that would be important to me, with me and a part of me forever. Just like this necklace has been," Draco explained leaning forward to clasp the necklace around Harry's neck, the brunette just let his large emerald eyes look appreciatively at Draco.

"It's so beautiful, really Draco. Thank you," Harry whispered, capturing Draco's lips with his own and kissing him passionately with slightly parted lips. When they withdrew from each others mouths, Harry's arms were quickly around Draco again.

"I want you to look at it and see me, feel it against your skin and know that I'm there with you. Always, Harry. I'm here with you," Draco whispered, and even he hadn't expected himself to say something so utterly sappy but it was only the mere truth.

"I already do, Draco. I have ever since the moment I met you, you were always etched under my skin like some sort of virus," Harry said, bringing Draco closer to him in his tight embrace. He couldn't remember a time when he was happier with where he was.

"I want you to know that I-I love you, Harry. I always have and I always will be in love with you. I need you to know that," Draco was whispering now, going slightly limp in Harry's arms.

"Oh Draco, I-" Harry stopped and took a deep breath, "I care so much for you but...I don't know if it's love yet, I'm not even too sure what love really is," he sighed truthfully but held Draco close still. "I just need time, Draco. That's all. In time, who couldn't love you?"

Draco frowned gently but he understood, he hadn't expected Harry to respond and lavish him with love right away as he was doing. "Thank you, for wearing the necklace," Draco detached himself from Harry and slowly stood up from the couch.

"I'll never take it off, promise," Harry smiled brightly, standing up as well. "I'm guessing that means you've gotta go meet your friends then?" he asked sadly.

"You know I don't want to, but I cannot have Zabini covering for me all the time," Draco grinned and the two walked to the door of the Room of Requirment and embraced one more time, and gave each other one more peck on the lips.

"Doing that to me earlier was mean, you didn't let me finish," Harry pouted as Draco turned to leave.

"Well that's what you get for torturing me for so long. Goodnight, Harry," Draco said over his shoulder before leaving Harry alone, smirking in the room.

"Oh, you think that's what I get," he grinned largely, greatly anticipating tomorrow all of a sudden. For with each new coming day, came many new opportunities...to drive Draco insane.

It was Thursday on his way to lunch with Seamus and Dean when Harry finally got to tease Draco like he wanted to, to get him back for what he had done to him in the Room of Requirment on that Monday evening after dinner. The three Gryffindor's were walking down the stairs, chuckling on about something or another that Harry wasn't quite paying attention to. His attention was directed at the platinum head that led the Slytherin group towards the Great Hall.

Harry quickened his pace, his friends closely following behind and the two groups met just outside the Great Hall. "Oi Malfoy, get your snakes outta the way!" he called, fully bringing the blonde to a halt as his entire body tensed as he turned to face his mate with a devilish smirk. Then his eyes were directed down at his chest, for today was also the first day that Harry was proudly wearing the dragon pendant over top of his clothing instead of stashed beneath his uniform in hidden privacy. The silver shone in the daylight seeping in from the enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall and Draco felt a warmth cloud his heart as he approached the boy with a smirk. The two Houses were glowering at one another, expecting a verbal fight if anything.

"Half-bloods and Muggle lovers like you tossers need to learn respect, do you not think so Blaise?" Draco drawled with his usual icy tone, he crossed his arms over his chest and stuck his nose high in the air as Blaise joined his side, mirroring his image. Harry couldn't help but let his smirk widen.

"I definitely would have to say they have to remember where they lie in the food chain," he smirked coyly.

"Snakes are scum of the earth," Dean snarled, but there was a hint of playfulness in his tone. Seamus was smirking happily at his best friends side, they were exchanging light-hearted looks with Blaise and Harry was suddenly thankful that at least two of the boys in his year were friends with another Slytherin. It would work to his benefit in the end of it all.

"That's no thing to say of your superiors," Draco hissed, taking another step forward as all those in the Entrance Hall had turned to look at the small spectacle. The students of Hogwarts were used to Harry and Draco running into one another and either something wholly unexpected to happen, or something wholly disastrous that took so many points away from both Houses they ended up tied for last place in the Cup standings.

"Superiors? Hah," Harry smirked maliciously and closed almost all the distance between him and Draco, his breath was hot on the others face as Draco's silver eyes went comically wide and his body stilled. He couldn't stand being this close to his mate and controlling his inner instincts of ravishing him.

Harry's smirk widened, " _Sssessha ssssheiath sssshhhsssiiih_ ,'' he hissed in Parseltongue as many of the students gasped at hearing the unspoken language and others looked on in bewildered amazement, nobody had heard Harry openly speak Parseltongue since Second Year. It was quite the sight to behold, Draco's astonished face as he quickly tried to cover up his growing pleasure at hearing Harry hiss - he couldn't describe why it turned him on, or what give him the idea to even find out whether or not it turned him on. That Monday night had proven it was definitely a good thing on his list of reasons of why he absolutely adored Harry.

"Potter, I hope you don't talk to your Mother with that mouth," Draco growled beneath his breath and it was barely audible, he could feel his senses tuning into just Harry and he wanted very much to crash his lips into the boys that stood so unnervingly close to him. Harry looked so beautiful with the morning light dancing on his face and Draco's pendant sitting on his chest.

" _Sssheiath, ssshhhhehh_ ," Harry merely hissed with a seductive smirk, everybody watched in silence.

Tremors rocked through Draco's body as he attempted to grab a hold of himself and just barely won. Pleasure was directing itself pointedly to the blonde's crotch and he felt his cheeks grow heated, he couldn't handle the smell and feeling of his mate so close to him, hissing like that turning him on so much in front of all those people. So Draco did the only thing he could, and he allowed himself to be quickly yanked away from Harry by Blaise's harsh hands. He was blindly directed to his usual seat at the Slytherin Table as Blaise glanced over at him. "Why is he so fucking hot, Blaise?" Draco growled.

Blaise chuckled despite himself, "Dunno, Malfoy, life's just not fair is it?" he smirked, "And was he wearing your necklace?"

Draco ignored his question as Harry walked in the Hall with Dean and Seamus laughing boisterously behind him, everybody else was glancing between the two infamous boys with questions flying through their head. Why had Harry spoken in Parselmouth? Was what most people were wondering as they settled down in their seats to eat their lunch.

It wasn't much longer before Ron and Hermione joined the others at the Gryffindor Table, holding hands they sat opposite their best friend. "Harry just freaked the hell outta Malfoy by speaking Parseltongue to him," Seamus announced immediately.

Harry put up his hands immediately in defence, "Hey! It worked though, didn't it?" he grinned.

"Oh, it worked alright," Dean chuckled, the other boys following his cue. Hermione gave Harry a skeptical look that he shrugged off as they began to eat their lunch.

"Mate, what's that around your neck?" Ron quipped, jabbing his thumb in the direction of Harry's pendant. "Does that say DM? What's that mean?" he squinted his eyes tightly at the exquisite piece.

Hermione shot Harry a stern, grave incredulous look that he ignored. "I think it's just the company that made it, bought it last Hogsmeade trip," he lied. He was glad that they didn't ask any more questions, despite Hermione's gaze which held a thousand and one. Harry was just happy to have the jewellery against his heart, a gift from somebody that truly loved him. He glanced across the Great Hall at that certain somebody and was even more pleased to see a look of complete sexual frustration, directed most positively at him.

Harry smirked largely and reached to grab a handful of chocolate treats that were there for dessert from their light lunch, he let the slowly melting chocolate to cake his fingers as he slowly ate them. Afterward, he looked directly across at Draco's heated gaze and put his finger into his mouth, he winked and sucked hard glad that everybody at his own table was too caught up in talking to notice his actions.

Draco growled deeply in frustration, his groin heated up considerably as he slammed his fork down on the table. The Slytherins around him looked over curiously.

Draco merely grumbled in a dark, low voice, "You're mine, Potter,"


	17. You Want Me

_''You want me,"_

Draco didn't think it were possible to be closer to the edge of sanity as he was lately without falling over.

It was Saturday morning at breakfast when it all began; he was seated in his usual spot and then his senses perked up, telling him to anticipate his mate arriving. As Harry strolled in, he looked like a personification of a Greek god. His hair, unruly as ever, looked soft to the touch as its shag barely hid his lightning bolt scar. He wore a button t-shirt undone, his pendant necklace resting on his tanned, hairless chest for everybody to see. The black slacks he was wearing that day were tighter than usual, showing off his full backside. The uniform Hogwarts cloak was stuffed in his shoulder bag as he brilliantly laughed alongside the Weaselette who was linked by their arms. Arousal and jealousy coursed through every nerve of the Veela as Harry smiled so brightly, the girls and some boys he passed 'awwed'. But there was one monumental difference about Harry Potter that morning, asides from his undying good mood, and that was his lack of hideous thick glasses. Those electric emerald eyes, one of a kind, held pure joy in them as Harry and Ginny continued laughing together.

Draco could kill to hear their conversation. They then quickly hugged and Ginny went off to sit beside Lavender and Pavarti. The there girls giggled and cooed, all of which was directed at Harry who sat further down the table alone. He didn't seem to realize that most of the student body was watching him adoringly.

"Who knew Potter was that stunning?" Pansy sat down beside Draco who was glaring heatedly across the room, "Like everybody knew he was good looking but Merlin! Seems like the boys taking your advice and getting a fashion sense for once...and he looks damn good!"

"Nobody wants to hear about your loverboy crush, Parkinson," chimed in Blaise as he looked worriedly at Draco's angered features. That boy could go from gorgeous and sly to hot and deadly in a second.

It wasn't long before Seamus and Dean sat on either side of Harry, the three excitedly jumped into conversation, their laughter ringing through-out the Great Hall. Draco, in the very back of his mind buried beneath his growing animalistic jealousy, wondered where Granger and the Weasel were.

Quite a few minutes continued on like this, most of the older year Gryffindor's whispering to one another and laughing loudly. Then as Granger and her boyfriend finally showed up, the laughter heavily surpressed as the two sat solemnly across from Harry flushing and avoiding everybody's curious glances.

Draco, like most, couldn't keep his eyes off of Harry for much longer than a minute. He absolutely despised everybody else checking out his mate, but he sat grinding his teeth and reminding himself just whose necklace the other was wearing.

As Harry devoured his pancakes sloshed with syrup, some of the sticky substance ran down the side of his mouth. People watched in fascination as his little pink tongue slowly licked it away, and his eyes met Draco's and immediately the blonde softened, except for his growing arousal.

Then Harry half-smirked and winked at Draco before returning to his awkward, silent breakfast.

"Did Potter just wink...at me?" Pansy asked hopefully. Draco glared menacingly over at her.

"I have it under great authority that Potter is taken, so sorry Pans," Blaise interjected lightly, but his hand found Draco's leg under the table and rubbed it reassuringly. He was quickly brushed off as Draco concentrated his line of sight on Harry once more.

"The Golden Boy taken? And I didn't know! Who is it?" Pansy quickly asked with excitement, her face always lighting up at the mention of gossip.

"And you think I'd tell you?" Blaise spat and turned away from the pouting pug and back towards Draco.

' _Who the hell does he think he is? He shouldn't be parading around like that...and with his shirt unbuttoned! Harry-James-Potter, stop driving me insane_!' Draco was screaming in his head, completely oblivious to the sets of eyes staring oddly at him as he continued to glare at the Gryffindor Table.

"Malfoy..." Blaise began warningly, he had been staring consecutively for a few minutes now, he didn't want their mates getting suspicious.

"How can you hate Potter this much when he looks like that?" Pansy questioned, and then Draco sharply turns towards her and growled.

"Maybe I don't hate him that much, ever think of that?" he snarled and then got up from the table and strode out of the Great Hall in a huff, Pansy staring wide-eyed after him.

Once the Slytherin Prince was most definitely out of earshot, Pansy turned towards Blaise inquiringly. "Did Malfoy just admit to liking Potter?"

Blaise sneered at her, "I think you misunderstood him," he snipped and then returned to his breakfast, hoping that Draco would calm down in time for the Quidditch game in an hour.

Draco was pacing the castle alone, the game was going to start in ten minutes. He just had to stay as faraway from Potter as possible, out of fear of jumping him or murdering all of those looking at him around him. He couldn't handle it, the Veela inside of him raged with emotion. It was still Spring, even though mating season was halfway over. He only had a week left of these crazy horomone driven emotions, and he wished it go away so he could stay in the same room as the boy for an entire meal.

Finally he came around to the Quidditch Pitch, he climbed the stands with a dark glower on his face and found his seat in the Slytherin section next to Blaise and Pansy. He merely crossed his arms and stared down at the grass below, ignoring both of their looks. He had a plan for a couple of days what he was going to do at this match, and he didn't really know if he was in the mood for it any more.

But as Harry led his team out onto the Pitch, smiling broadly and making his way over to Madame Hooch and the Hufflepuff team, his eyes scanned the stands until he met with Draco's. His smile broadened and he did something that shocked Draco, and he waved happily with joy in those emerald eyes. Draco sat stock still in the stands as many pairs of eyes turned to look at whom Harry was waving at. And then as they searched the crowd and found Draco locked in a staring battle with him, a slight flush of pink on his cheeks, Harry did something else wholly unexpected and blew him a kiss. Draco's entire body tensed as if he could actually feel that kiss through the wind and on his lips, he sucked in a deep breath. Oh, he was definitely going through with his plan now, as a grin appeared on his features.

Finally Harry returned his attention towards Madame Hooch rattling off the usual speech, but most of the audience was glancing between the secret lovers with morbid curiosity. "Draco, why did Potter wave at you?" Pansy asked in a whisper, having not seen the kiss.

"I do believe it is called a greeting of some sort," Draco explained sarcastically as Blaise chuckled beside Draco, both feeling much light-hearted about the situation at hand now. Draco's Veela was satisfied as the game began.

Thirty minutes into the game, everybody in the crowd was cheering and shouting along with Lee Jordan the commentator. It was an exciting, enthralling game, brooms whizzing heatedly through the air, Quidditch balls going each and every way. Draco smirked smugly and decided this was the time to do it.

He slowly unbuttoned his blouse and took it off in the stands, a couple of people around him looked over to see what the movement was about. Underneath his now forgotten blouse was a bright red and orange striped shirt with the words; 'GO GRYFFINDOR' painted on them. Draco smirked even larger now at the absolutely shocked expressions as he retrieved his wand from his pocket. He held it in the air and cast a silent spell he had learned the other day for this match. Red, orange and white sparks erupted beautifully from his wand and arched all across the Slytherin section, and with big fireworks flashing momentarily against the mostly green-tied section the words; 'Go Potter!' could be seen a mile away.

"What in the actual _fuck_?" Pansy whispered in an absolute state of utter confusion.

Blaise, however, was nearly rolling all over the floor with laughter, clutching at his pained sides. Draco's eyes weren't focused on the audience's shocked expressions any more, but upwards at Harry who was hovering in the Pitch on his broom and looking down at him. His eyes were dancing and his smile was the largest, most genuine Draco had ever seen. Warmth shot through both of them upon looking into each others eyes, and it took Harry a minute to soar off to find the Snitch, but his eyes always led back to Draco ever couple of minutes where the blonde actually began cheering. The fireworks spell wore off soon enough and not long after Harry had caught the Snitch using his perfected Plumpton Pass.

The crowd went wild and cheered, screamed and shouted downward. Draco was quick to be out of his seat and run down the stands excitedly, he wanted to congratulate his boyfriend. People were already milling around Harry, but he was pushing through the crowd towards the taller boy amongst them all with the unmistakable platinum hair. They met halfway through the crowd of shouting, congratulating amazed students. Harry smirked broadly as he gave Draco a once over with his new Gryffindor cheering shirt. Harry found at that moment, as he looked into Draco's soft smiling silver eyes, that he had truly fallen in love for the first and last time.

"Can't say I saw that coming," Harry said above the noise of the crowd, people were milling around the boys to listen to the conversation. Most with fascination.

"Well, that was the point, wasn't it Potter?" Draco drawled.

"Yeah, I guess it was," Harry was grinning larger now, "You want me," he hwhispered. Draco felt himself go rigid, as he stared into those eyes that weren't covered by their usual broken glass, and his pendant shone in the sunlight against Harry's sweaty chest. Draco thought that was the understatement of the year, ' _You want me? Of course I want you! I've never wanted anything more in my life!_ ' he screamed inwardly but kept a cool outward reserve. Then Harry opened up his arms. "Aren't you gonna congratulate me?" he asked, an underlying hint of seduction in there. 

Draco tensed but soon relaxed and smirked as he allowed himself to be enveloped in Harry's familiar warmth. They hugged momentarily, the crowd stilled in shock as they watched the scene. Draco soon pulled himself away, he couldn't have his reputation completely ruined. "Congrats, Potter," he smiled down at the boy who smirked brightly up.

"Meet me you know where after dinner," Harry whispered before disappearing into the throng of people.

Pansy was still shock faced whispering, "What the fuck?" but she was now joined by Hermione and Ron on the other side of the crowd with the exact same expressions.

Hermione turned to her boyfriend, "I think we should find Harry and have a talk with him," she began confusedly.

"Yes, I think we should," Ron growled, anger suddenly rising inside of him at that public scene of slight affection between his best mate and the Slytherin Prat Prince. With that, the two turned away from the crowd in resolve, searching for Harry.

 


	18. Then Have Me

_''We'll make a Slytherin out of you yet,"_

As Harry descended the dormitory stairs, he hadn't expected anyone to be back from the Quidditch game yet. His mind was set and he had a lot to prepare for before he met with Draco that evening after dinner. Instead his plans were stalled by Ron and Hermione who greeted him.

"What the fuck was that about?" Ron snapped as his girlfriend frowned, putting her arm around his waist in an attempt to calm him down.

"What was what for?" Harry played dumb, he really wasn't in the mood for an inquiry and he was raking his brain of how to slip out of this one unscathed.

"You know what! Getting all cozy with the Ferret," Ron darkly whispered as Harry dramatically rolled his eyes.

"Oh, you mean him congratulating me after a victory? As it were a crime against humanity," Harry tutted, he was truly sick of this and definitely not looking forward to telling Ron everything transpiring between him and his lover.

"Why don't we let Harry explain?" Hermione suggested quietly.

Ron calmed slightly at this though he still scowled, "Alright, then explain,"

"I don't feel there's anything to explain, really," he retorted stubbornly, ignoring Hermione's disapproving gaze. Why couldn't she just butt out of his business, just for this one time? It really wasn't the best day to be doing this interrogation.

Ron turned red in the face, suddenly fuelled with anger once again, "How about you getting through Defence lessons with the Ferret unharmed? Or him cheering for you? Not even to mention you  _touching_  him like that!" he snarled.

Harry took a deep breath and sighed, hunching his shoulders defeatedly. "Ron, I love you mate. You're like a brother to me...nothing can change that, not even what's going on between Draco and me. I know you've got a lot of questions but right now isn't the time. I've gotta go do some research, I'll see you two later," and before either could respond Harry turned and left through the portrait hole.

Ron turned heatedly towards Hermione and hissed, "What does he mean...going on between  _Draco_  and him?"

Harry had spent all afternoon dwelling over piles of books, he even found on particularly useful for that evening and checked it out. He skipped dinner and went to the kitchens instead, not fathoming to run into Ron just yet. After filling up, Harry brought himself and his book into dangerous enemy territory - The Slytherin dungeons. It took a few minutes to collect himself before he rapped his fist on the portrait.

A second year answered, looking Harry up and down slowly. "Harry Potter, come to check out the competition have you?" he drawled, and the small brunette sounded too much like a little mini-Draco that it sent shivers down Harry's spine.

"Perhaps. Speaking of which, is the only competition worth mentioning in there or down at dinner?" Harry asked, ignoring the icy glare of the small twelve year-old.

"Let him in," a familiar voice from the Slytherin Common Room called, and the other boy took a moment before swinging the door fully open and allowing Harry to step inside. It looked just as it had done back in Second Year with not one change.

Blaise Zabini was standing up from the couch and he elegantly swooped over to Harry who stood awkwardly in the entrance. "He decided to skip dinner," he announcned.

"So he's here then?"

"Just getting ready. He's nervous about tonight, not sure what to make of it," Blaise furrowed his brow as he crossed his arms.

"Nervous, what for? We've met together loads of times," Harry responded, paying no attention to the confused Second Year listening in.

"Something about not being able to..." Blaise looked pointedly at Harry for a moment and then lowered his gaze down to the floor and Harry got the idea.

' _He thinks he can't control himself any more_ ,' he thought sadly, he wished Draco had more faith in his own restraint because Harry somehow felt that no matter he'd be able to hold back.

"So, he's dragging me along with you two, for security reasons," he finished and smirked lightly at Harry's slackened jaw and he put up his hands. "Hey, I promise I won't peek!" he winked mischeviously.

Harry shook his head vigourously now, "Thanks for your concern and all Zabini, but your presence won't be necessary,"

"Unless you don't mind him completely losing control, then I would say you very much do need my company tonight," Blaise hissed, he didn't like how thick Potter could be sometimes despite his good looks and reputation.

"Who says I don't mind?" Harry drawled suggestively.

"You don't mind...ooh, oh!" Blaise caught up and smirked even larger, and then he sauntered over to Harry in a sultry walk with his eyes burning, "You're quite the sly one, Potter. I think you're growing on me," he grinned and was only an inch away from Harry now who stiffened his posture, staring down into Blaise's eyes as the boy reached out and brought his hand to wipe Harry's fringe off his forehead. His eyes trailed up to the infamous scar as the Second Year sat, watching in confusion. "If it weren't for this mark here, I'd say we could've been friends years ago," Blaise chuckled lightly and dropped Harry's raven hair as he looked back up into those intense emerald eyes. Now he knew what his best friend had been going on about all that time, those eyes really were enthralling and breath-taking all at once.

At some point during their conversation, Draco had entered the room and suddenly had a tight grip on Blaise's shoulder, his long nails digging into his flesh. Blaise winced but did nothing more than cock his head to the side with a smirk. "Sorry, couldn't help myself," he grinned before stepping aside.

Draco and Harry looked at each other momentarily before the blonde turned his attention to his friend. "Are you ready to go?"

"He's not coming with us," Harry quickly interjected.

Draco raised his eyebrow elegantly, "And why is that?"

With a voice that was firm but still somehow soft, Harry spoke, "Because I trust you, Draco,"

The words seemed to knock the wind out of Draco and he found himself smirking at the corners of his mouth. "You're a fool to trust me, Potter,"

"So be it," Harry grinned, "Will you accompany thy fool for a walk?" he asked, offering his hand which Draco took immediately. "Oh and Zabini, about what you said...why don't we start that whole friendship thing now?"

"Should've been done years ago," Zabini winked, teetering on the balls of his feet as he looked cheerily between his best friend and Harry Potter holding hands, it definitely was a sight for sore eyes, "We'll make a Slytherin out of you yet,"

"I think he might be ahead of the game with the things I've seen him do," Draco drawled and without another word, Harry was dragging his boyfriend out of the Common Room and into the corridors of Hogwarts.

Blaise turned on his heel to face a startled second year, he raised his finger at his face, "That didn't happen, okay Willum?" he smirked as the boy nodded before they both returned to their distinctive seats reading their books. Blaise was grateful for two things at that point; one being that his best friend was finally beginning to get a shard of happiness in life, and the other being that the younger year Slytherin's always listened to their superiors.

"Harry, you look absolutely fabulous without those hideous numbers," Draco commented a little ways down the dungeon corridors towards the Entrance Hall, their hands still clasped tightly together, fingers entwined and their warmth interchanging between their palms.

"Er, thanks. 'Mione, Ron and I did a Eye Fixing Charm last night, it's been many years coming," he blushed, turning his attention down to the floor as he felt Draco's gaze burning into him every couple of seconds.

"I would say. Though I am kind of glad that you didn't do it earlier," Draco drawled, smirking, "Because then everybody would've realized much sooner how unbelievably attractive you are and I don't think I would personally be able to handle that," he had that glint of posessive joy in his narrow, silver eyes Harry noticed as he glanced up to the meet them. He had seen that look a couple of times before, and he couldn't explain why it turned him on.

"Uhm, erm..thanks," Harry stuttered, shying away although not taking his hand off of Draco's. He didn't want to, he refused to, he felt too comforted by their fingers so tightly wound around each others. It seemed he had realized something about himself over the past couple of weeks, and that was that he was confident when it came to acting upon his physical wants, but when it came to anything emotional Draco was much more calm and collective than he.

"Harry, the Entrance Hall's right up there," Draco warned gently, attempting to slip his hand out of his boyfriend's but found that the raven-haired youth wouldn't have any of it. Instead Harry gripped him tighter and refused to look at him, though. Smiling happily, Draco kept himself there.

Harry had stopped breathing when they entered the Entrance Hall, he was counting down the seconds until he would be throttled by Ron. But the boys were greeted with emptiness, they realized the Great Hall doors were still closed as dinner must have still be in session. Inwardly grateful, Harry hurried them along up the changing staircases.

"Harry, what's this all about?" Draco asked curiously, he hadn't seen the boy with such a determind look on his face ever since the TriWizard Tournament. "And what's that book for?" he added wearily, just now chancing a look at what was in his other hand.

"Keep your knickers on till we get there," Harry grinned sarcastically, continuing quickly along.

Finally once they reached the Fifth Floor, Harry asked to walk in front of the room three times himself. As he did and the door appeared, he quickly ushered Draco inside. There was a large, red comfortable looking couch in front of an enormous fireplace, flames lit but emitting no real heat. It looked as if hundred of candles lit the dim room on very shelves and wooden dressers, the floor was complete with dark hardwood. In the distance, Harry had asked the room to give them a large four-poster bed, heavy velvet drapings with crimson silk sheets, and covered the floor and comforter was red rose petals. It was the best thing he could think of in short time.

"H-Harry," Draco stuttered with wide eyes, "It's so beautiful in here, what's all this about?" he asked again, this wasn't usual and he hadn't done anything to deserve all this.

Instead of receiving an answer, he found Harry's lips crashing heatedly into his own. They searched each other's mouths, tongues twirling and dancing like lurid fire. Harry held on tightly to the Veela whose senses snapped at the sudden sensation, and he allowed himself to drown completely in his mate Harry broke apart from him and wrapped his arms around his neck, looking up with stars in his eyes. "I love you Draco, oh Gods I fucking love you," he whispered and brought his lips back to Draco's shocked face at hearing those words for the first time.

Riveted with passion now, the blonde wanted to show Harry just how much he returned that love. He grabbed him roughly around the upper legs and hoisted the boy to settle on his hips. With ease, and without breaking their mouths contact, Draco carried his lover over to the bed completely skipping the couch idea. He stepped through the drawings and allowed the two of them to fall down on the light bed, the rose petals rustling around their bodies.

Groaning, Harry pushed his hips upards into Draco's, his legs still wrapped around him as he felt hands beginning to explore his abdomen like feathers. Heat exploded and rippled through Harry's body as soft fingernails scraped eagerly across his skin gently, he gasped with pleasure and Draco grumbled huskily in response.

Pulling their mouths apart, Draco looked passionately down at his mate in his ruffled, flush state and found his arousal growing to its full potential. His hands were tearing off the clothing at this point, but his eyes never leaving the others. It didn't take Draco long to have harry down to his boxers, he eyed the boy greedily. "I'm going to make you mine, Potter," he growled deeply, perching himself ontop of the boy and giving in fully to his instincts.

Draco dove down to Harry's neck and began suckling, licking it all over and in every crook. He slowly made his way down his neck to his collarbone, attempting to make as many marks as he could on the way wanting everybody to see just how much Harry belonged to him. Harry was bucking and groaning with pleasure beneath his boyfriend, allowing himself to be rendered completely to his every whim.

Draco came to the line of Harry's boxers and he looked up seductively at him, Harry couldn't look away. "Do you want me, Potter?"

"Yes, yess," Harry hissed.

"Hmm, I think I need to get you back for how crazy you've been driving me," Draco drawled grinningly, and his tongue slowly trailed down lower, his hands lightly pulling Harry's boxers off slowly. As the boy's member was revealed, Draco bypassed it and began kissing and sucking on his sensitive inner thighs. He was pleased with the moans he got in response, he saw from the corner of his eye Harry's erection throb anticipatingly.

Having slid the boxers completely off now, Draco climbed off of Harry to admire him in his full nude form. Harry lie there blushing, breathing hard with his heart beating fast in his chest and that beautiful passion in his eyes. Draco stood in front of him now, unbuttoning his shirt slowly as Harry's eyes watched his every move. He found himself smirking, he lay waste to his shirt and trousers and then lightly trailed his fingers down his own abdomen as Harry was sitting on his elbows now to watch this.

' _How does somebody look so good?_ ' Harry found himself asked, his eyes wide as he watched his boyfriend touch himself.

His hand came down to his own boxers and dropped the to the floor, revealing his large member erect as well. He brought his hand around it and stroked firmly, throwing his head back in pleasure and moaning. Harry found pleasure overloading his system at that point, not believing the gesture he was seeing. After a minute of making Harry struggled on the bed, Draco snapped his eyes to his with a piercing, silver glance.

"You want me then, Harry?" Draco asked slurred.

Harry found himself grinning in response, trying to get some control, "Of course I do. But I think you might want me more," he drawled sexily and reached down with his own hand now to grab his member, and before his head was thrown back in pleasure Draco was ontop of him again and necking him harshly.

"I want you," Draco growled, he ground their pelvis' together now.

"Then have me," Harry whispered. Draco stilled and pulled himself away from him, he looked down at Harry with his arms propped on either side of him.

"Are you sure?" he asked gently, he didn't want to force him into anything. That's why Blaise was supposed to accompany him, he didn't want to make Harry do something he didn't want to do or might regret.

"Of course I'm sure, never been surer in my life!" Harry chuckled and leaned up to gently peck Draco on the cheek, "I even have a book with me that's really gonna help us afterwards, trust me," he smiled.

That was enough convincing for Draco, his Veela senses were on overdrive this late into mating season and being so naked and so close to Harry was the final mark.

After twenty minutes of strenuous, awkward preparation, Draco was finally situated perfectly on top of Harry as he fully entered him. Harry squirmed beneath him and closed his eyes tightly, attempting to relax at the pain. Draco smirked gently, he had never felt something so warm, tight and wonderful around him. He remembered how to make it more pleasurable for his mate, he closed his eyes as well and concentrated on releasing all his Veela powers. As soon as he did, everything became a blur. The passion, the kisses, the incoherent moans, Harry thrusting back into his touch, Draco moving rythmatically into him, gripping at his hips as Harry gripped on his back.

They moved, groaned and made love as one. Harry had never felt closer to anybody in his entire life, and he had never felt so far away from the rest of the world. As Draco penetrated an explosive spot inside of him, Harry found himself slowly being driven over the edge as he came screaming his lover's name. Draco grunted huskily and drove harder into Harry, "Fuck, Harry!" Draco growled and thrusted one more time to released his full load into Harry.

They both collapsed on the bed, and immediately Draco wrapped his arms around Harry who settled deeply into the touch, his chest heaving as sweat rolled down his body. "You're gonna be really tired now..." Harry reminded him, having read just how exhausted Veela's were after they mated for the first time.

"I know," Draco whispered, his eyes were already closed as he laid his head on Harry's chest, the brunette envelopping the boy in his arms. "I love you Harry," he uttered wearily before quickly drifting off.

"I love you too, so much," Harry responded gently, leaning down to kiss Draco's soft platinum hair. He soon found the same deathly weariness taking over his body, having been worn out from mating. It wasn't just a sexual process, for Veela and their mate it thoroughly exhausted their magical cores as well.

As they both drifted into a deep sleep, neither stirred as Draco's skin began to split on the inner sides of both his shoulder blades. Blood dripped down from his broken skin and fell on the crimson blankets.


	19. Congratulations

_"I wonder what Sev will say about those marks I've left on you,"_

Harry awoke in a haze, he found himself feeling more comfortable than he had in his entire life. Something extraordinarily soft and velvety felt as though it were protecting his skin, enveloping around him. He slowly opened his eyes and peered up into Draco's face, somehow in their sleeping they had switched positions. Slowly the Slytherin stirred and cracked his eyes open, "G'morning, Harry," he whispered and captured the boys lips. Pleasure exploded in them, but Harry was distracted by something feathery dragging against his naked back.

"What was that?" Harry asked groggily and then allowed his eyes to survey the room around him. He quickly found he couldn't even see the room, but instead was confronted by a pair of large black, velvety wings that span out from Draco's back and held the two of them together. "Wow...Draco..." he whispered amazled, reaching out and stroking one of the wings.

Draco sighed into the touch, feeling it relax him. "I woke up a few hours ago to find them kind of just there. I wanted to see if I remembered how to retract them, and I do. But it just feels so good to have them out, around you, protecting you," he whispered and kissed Harry gently, his new fully bonded mate.

"It does feel wonderful," Harry agreed, he had expected this to happen. Only very powerful Veela could be mated and get the after effect of retractable wings, and he knew deep down Draco was more than powerful enough for that to happen.

"When I was awake, I also saw that book you had brought. Have you read it?" he quipped, he had the book set down beside their entangled bodies.

Harry found himself suddenly very awake and smiling gently, he was actually excited about the aftereffects now. Yes, he definitely did want to see that book now. Draco felt this as his answer and quickly reached for it and flipped himself onto his back, his wings ruffled gently around him. Harry was rolled onto his chest, he curled up on it and sighed at the velvet on his back. He had never felt more safe and at home in his entire life.

"How do they feel, love?" Harry whispered curiously.

"Just like an extra set of arms, really," Draco responded with furrowed brows, he really couldn't quite describe the feeling. It wasn't as if they threw him off balance, but they made him feel more complete as if he had been amputated from them his whole life and was just now getting them back.

Draco settled them comfortably and propped open the book for them both to see. It was a small volume of 'What to Expect After Mating, For the Veela and Their Mate,'. Draco passed through the act of mating and what would happen during it, this was useless to them now. "Ah here, list of effects," he said, finally flipping to the page that concerned them now.

He cleared his throat and read aloud, " _After a Veela mates with its intended, there is the slight possibility of giving birth to a set of wings. The colour and span of the wings can differ, though have not known to reach over a six metre span..._ Yada, yada," Draco grumbled, he really didn't have the care for this at the moment and he had read it all already from the books his Father had sent him, and by the looks of it Harry had read it too.

"Here we are!  _A stronger emotional connection, with the ability to sense one anothers emotions when they are nearby. A stronger need to constantly be with one another, though seperation is not fatal it is not reccomended for the first season after mating. This will create a stronger, more unbreakable bond and the more times the act of mating are completed as well. The Veela will become overtly protective and posessive of his/her mate from this point forward, willing to sacrifice their lives for their mate. It is not uncommon if the mate experiences a similar feeling. Both the Veela and the mate may also experience heightened magical ability. Henceforth, a newly mated Veela couple are extremely dangerous and should be kept from a large group of people in the emergency case of jealousy rages..."_  Draco trailed off sounding bored, he knew he wouldn't let anybody near his mate in any manner even if such wanted a hug. He flipped the book back onto the bed.

"Nice sentiment to bring the book and all, but I don't think it's necessary," he drawled and turned over to face Harry, catching those eyes and smiling brightly. He brought them together to kiss. Harry smiled and snuggled into the touch, but then there was a vicious knock on the Room of Requirement door. Both boys stilled and looked at one another questioningly.

"Er, yes?" Harry called, he had locked the door last night when they entered the room.

"Mister Potter! Get your hands off of Draco this instant and bring yourselves to the Hospital Wing!" Severus Snape's pained, icy voice growled through the doorway.

Harry blushed a deep crimson colour but it didn't distract him to tease his boyfriend, "Better get dressed,  _Draco_ ," he teased.

Draco slapped Harry on the arm lightly and reluctantly untangled himself from his mate. "Coming, Sev'!" he called, not wanting the Potions Master to be waiting for them as they got dressed. As Draco closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment, he was able to retract his wings and suddenly it was as if they weren't there in the first place.

Harry looked on with amazement, the only sign of wings was three-inch long scars on the inners of Draco's shoulder blades, dried blood settled around it. "Draco, you had been bleeding!" Harry said, jumping up from the bed now and ushering himself over to the blonde who was pulling on his trousers.

"I know, what do you think they'd just pop out?" he asked receiving a scowl, "It's fine, really. They ache a little bit, but I can't really notice them," Draco assured Harry.

After the boys were dressed, they looked over one another and Draco found himself chuckling. "What, what is it?" Harry asked nervously, the blonde still laughing at looking at his neck. Harry's hand flew up there, 'What is he laughing on about? Do I have a spider on my neck?'

"I wonder what Sev will say about those marks I've left on you," he cooed, offering his hand forward that Harry slowly took.

"Are they really that noticeable?"

"Can see them from a mile away," Draco quickly grinned, which widened as he heard Harry's groan, "Wonder what he wants with us in the Hospital Wing, any ways,"

Harry shrugged as they walked down the halls together, as they passed a window Harry could see that it was barely sunrise and doubted any other students would be up yet, which he was highly grateful for. "Dunno, but I have a feeling it has something to do with Dumbledore," he speculated, he always had a feel for things when the Headmaster was involved.

"I hope not, I hate that old coot," Draco grumbled, but upon reaching the Hospital Wing they fonud four very stern looking adults staring at them. Dumbledore, however, had that same twinkle in his bright blue eyes. Draco's grip on Harry's hand tightened considerably, the raven-haired swallowed as they approached the adults.

"Harry m'boy, Mister Malfoy," Dumbledore greeted with an incline of his head. "The wards told me something very interesting last night and I would like to hear from the two of you if this is true," he began softly.

Draco looked over at Harry, motioning for him to take the floor. Harry bit his lip and slowly turned to his Headmaster, "If you mean that, uhm...well, what do you mean?" he asked carefully, he didn't want to say anything that was unnecessary information to him, Remus, Snape and Madame Pomfrey.

"That you and Mister Malfoy mated this prior evening, successfully as well. That Mister Malfoy is a Veela and you his mate," Dumbledore said firmly with a small smile of encouragement as Harry blushed furiously.

"Yes, that is correct," Draco answered firmly for the both of them.

"Ah, a congratulations are in order then!" Dumbledore grinned at their shocked expressions, "It is not everyday two very powerful Wizards come together as one and vow to live their lives together! Even though I would believe it calls for celebration, I have a very anxious Mediwtich on staff whom would highly appreciate looking over your states. The mating ritual of a Veela and his mate can take a lot of energy out of both of you," he announced. Madame Pomfrey quickly adled over to them now, keeping her flushing face and eyes off of both the boys own faces.

She attempted to draw Draco away from Harry, but the boy wouldn't have an of it. His hand tightly locked around his mate, Harry just stepped closer to Draco who smirked lightly. "Oh, alright then," Madame Pomfrey sighed in defeat and took out her wand to do a quick magical examination of both boys.

"I do believe Severus and Remus would like a word with you two, but when you are finished be sure to meet with me in my office for some tea. There are some things we ought to discuss," Dumbledore twinkled and with that left the Hospital Wing smiling brightly.

Remus and Severus both looked like mirror images of one another, their arms crossed across their chests as they frowned at the boys. "Are you happy?" Severus asked slowly, being the first one to speak out of the two Professor's.

"Very," Draco responded firmly, gripping Harry's hand tighter. He wasn't looking forward to the third degree from his Godfather, and he hoped that maybe he would be let off this one time.

"And you, Harry?" Remus asked softly, and meeting those joyful emerald eyes he knew not to question it again and merely smiled in response. "Very well then, do you both understand what entails of you now?"

"Yeah...stronger emotional connection, right? And, uhm...never being able to, uhm..."

"Never  _wanting_  to be apart," Draco finished for him, sending him a sly wink which made Harry blush. It was true, even at that point both boys could said with finality that there wasn't going to be a time when they would want to be apart.

"Right, well," Remus coughed awkwardly, shifting his weight. He felt so protective of Harry ever since Sirius passed away, and at this point he didn't really know how he should react.

"I hope you don't mind, Remus," Harry sighed sadly, it seemed like the werewolf didn't accept of this.

Harry's fears were quickly stilled when Remus jumped and shook his head, "No, I don't, not at all!" he assured, "I-I just don't know what to say! I mean, I'm glad you're happy and that you've found somebody, if you're happy I'm happy!"

"Thanks, Moony," Harry grinned happily.

"You as well, Draco. Though I do think there will be something of an atrocious conversation in the future with your Father," Snape drawled, making Draco smirk at the mere thought of it.

"Understatement of the century, Sev," he grinned and the Potions Master and the blonde met eyes momentarily and in that gaze held understanding and they both quietly nodded to one another.

"You have both not only sustained your magical cores, but it does seem that to my knowledge the mating ritual has increased your senses and powers," Madame Pomfrey announced finally, having finished her examination. "May I ask if, Mister Malfoy, you might have..."

"Yes, yes I have," Draco said, knowing exactly what she was going to ask.

"May we-"

"Of course," Draco cut her off, he had no problem revealing his newborn wings to the adults. He slipped his hand from Harry's, breaking their contact from the first time since they met last night. He slowly unbuttoned his shirt as Harry blushed as arousal set in from seeing his Veela's pink chest, he looked down at his feet.

Upon Draco having fully removed his shirt, he closed his eyes and concentrated and within a few seconds, wings the span of no more than a metre stretched out from his back and relaxed tentatively, one wing immediately draped around Harry's shoulders. The brunette sighed into the soft touch and leaned into it, feeling that warm safety wash over him. Neither boy paid much attention to the three astonished persons.

"May I clean them up? I know a few spells that can really fix up the healing process," Poppy said, Draco merely nodded and the mediwitch brought herself and her wand around to Draco's back.

"Harry..." Remus began slowly, tearing his eyes off of the beautiful wings and to the raven-haired boy with some obvious markings fresh on his neck. "...what are those?" he asked.

"That is more information than I was willing myself to see," Severus grumbled, looking anywhere but at the couple now with an icy look on his face.

Harry flushed, "Oh, uhm...you, erm..."

Feeling the need to step in before he became further agitated by the situation of talking about Potter's love marks on his neck, the Potions Master stepped in, "Now Remus, no need to be naive. I do not think Potter's heart here can handle the embarrassment," he drawled and Harry, for the first time in his life, inwardly thanked Snape. He could see why Draco might like him being his Godfather, because if you were on his good side things always seemed to play out in your odds.

Remus was the one blushing alongside Harry now as Draco and Severus shook their heads, "Gryffindors," Draco mumbled, cracking a smirk from his Professor.

"All done boys, I do believe the Headmaster is eagerly awaiting your presence," Pomfrey announced, stepping from behind Draco once again. The mediwtich left the four alone, understanding that a moment was to be had between them. Draco quickly retracted his wings and put his shirt back on.

"Well, congratulations Harry and...Draco," Remus smiled gently, "I can say that the Duel this Tuesday will most definitely be an exciting one,"

"Yes, congratulations for completing your Mating. Even if it is with a fool like Potter," Severus drawled once more. After they hugged their personal mentors, the boys began to leave the Hospital Wing hand-in-hand, beaming just as much as they had when they were coming in. They both finally felt something they didn't even know was missing in the first place had finally fallen back into place. "Oh, and Draco, I would suggest to see what those wings can do some day," Severus commented.

They walked quickly down the halls, wishing to get to the Headmaster's office before the corridors became flooded with students going off to their breakfast and throwing every single question at the couple with their hands entwined.

Upon reaching Dumbledore's office, they noticed the stairwell was left open for them which Harry was grateful for, not wanting to waste time guessing all different types of passwords in the form of Muggle candy. They were greeted with Dumbledore smiling at his desk, he was fumbling over some paperwork which he immediately set aside as he saw the boys enter. "Please, take a seat," he offered.

Harry sat down in one of the armchairs, but Draco sat down on the same chair but the arm, he didn't want to be too far for him mate so soon after mating. He slung his arm around the boy, and looked wearily at the Headmaster. He still would never fully trust him. "As I said before I shall say again, Congratulations to the two of you," he smiled brightly.

"Thank you, sir," Harry blushed and looked away, he was embarrassed slightly by the situation. You have one night of love making with your boyfriend, and apparently it is excitable news to all the adults around him.

"Of course I understand that neither of you would like separate from one another most likely for the first couple of weeks. It will be trying and tiring on the both of you to be around so many other people with such a new, strong bond. I do wish you well in your journey together, but there are rules you must both abide by.

"For one, I am not a foolish old man whom is blind. I understand that sleeping arrangements must be met, and therefore I am allowing the both of you to be in one another's retrospective dormitories as long as you vow not to disturb any of your classmates with lewd behaviour," Dumbledore warned.

"Really?" Harry asked hopefully, smiling brightly and perking up in his chair.

"Of course sir, we shall keep to ourselves," Draco assured the old man formally, he really didn't want to be here in this office discussing this. He want to travel back to any sort of bed with Harry and wrap his wings around his mate, sleeping off the day.

"You two are not, however, excused from your lessons. I have rearranged your time schedules so that for the rest of the year you will have mirroring classes, henceforth you will not have to part. So if I hear of either of you skiving off your classes, you shall be met with regular repercussions," he smiled comfortingly down at the boys, he had never seen two people glowing as much as they did now.

"Alas, there is not much for me to say after this. Though, might I add to Mister Potter that I believe you have finally achieved in discovering power the Dark Lord knows not," Dumbledore said seriously and pointedly, but he stood and made no room for Harry nor Draco to interject. Harry's heart raced, did he hear what Dumbledore was really saying? Had Draco and him been the answer all along? "I think I shall retrieve some breakfast for the both of you and there is a group of students whom are quite eager to speak with you both," he smiled softly and then turned to leave them.

Draco turned to look quizzically down at his mate, "What did he mean, power the Dark Lord knows not?"

Harry blushed, "The prophecy, remember Draco? I think what Dumbledore is trying to say that our Bond, that that's the power the Dark Lord knows not. That's what's going to defeat him; our love," Harry turned a deeper red at how corny that sounded, but as he looked up into those comforting silver eyes, he knew it was true.

Now all they had to do was survive the wrath of Ronald Billius Weasley.


	20. Confrontation

_"No, I definitely saw it too, Weasley. Couldn't really keep my eyes off of it, actually,"_

"So what are we telling them?"

"Everything,"

"Everything?"

"Everything,"

The boys sat with their arms entwined around one another now, Draco still on the arm of the chair as they awaited their friends arrivals. They had picked at their breakfast, neither having much of an appetite.

Blaise sauntered in then, Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy not far behind. Neither looked surprised or stunned by the fact the boys were being so intimate, although Zabini was adorning a stupid grin and Pansy a deep blush. Crabbe and Goyle, however, greeted them both with curt nods.

"I take it you told them?" Draco queried, pulling Harry closer to him so that he was snuggled up against his lean side.

"Filled 'em in on the way down here. With what I heard from Potter last night, I knew what Dumbledore would be calling us down here so early for, especially since you hadn't come back," he smirked and then shifted his weight onto one foot, cocking out his hip rather femininely, "So, how was it?" he questioned.

Draco rolled his eyes but found himself smirking at his lover's words, "Should have been there, Blaise. It was quite the...experience," Harry winked as he spoke in a low, husky voice.

As the Slytherin flushed, Pansy turned with a small frown toward Draco. "I guess this mean's we won't be getting married,"

"Dearest, we were _never_ going to get married," Draco hissed, she looked slightly put off but merely nodded, seemingly taking the entire situation well.

"Crabbe? Goyle?" Draco turned towards them, they had yet to say anything or react whatsoever.

"Whatever you wanna do, it's up to you,"

"We ain't got no care about it. Doesn't harm us any, just gives us more fish in the sea," Crabbe grunted, Goyle nodding in agreement with that, small sly smirks coming onto their mouths. Those two and Theodore Nott were the only straight Sixth Year Slytherin's yet, it made the playing field much larger for them.

"As if you could get any if you were the last people on Earth," Harry rolled his eyes, crossing his arms across his chest as Blaise smirked largely.

"See, I told you so. 100% Slytherin. I don't think this boy's got a bit of Gryffindor in 'em!" he chuckled, and Harry found himself joining along. Then Blaise got serious all of a sudden, as Draco and Harry's backs were to the door an idea popped into his head. "So, who was bottom?" he asked interestedly.

"Him, of course. I am the Veela and not to mention that I am a Malfoy and Malfoy's always top," Draco huffed, sticking his nose high in the air as the two largest boys grunted amusedly. Pansy still looked dazed, not really sure to trust herself to say anything.

"Oh yeah, is that right?" Harry raised an eyebrow and turned to his mate and pulled him down onto his lap, he wrapped his arms fully around Draco and looked up at him with seductive, deep emerald eyes blazing with passion. Draco immedaitely became lost and incoherent in Harry's arms, wanting to reach out and ravish him, "We'll see who bottoms next time, Draco," he breathed and then brought his mouth very closely to the blonde's ear and nipped it gently, for all to see, " _Shhhhethhhs, Ssssiassssth_ ," Harry hissed in Parseltongue for the first time since they were mated.

Draco felt as though the hissing had flooded through his veins, emitting pure pleasure to all nerves in his body. He leaned over to capture Harry's lips but, however, was interupted by a loud thumping from behind them. The couple turned inquiringly behind their chair to find Ron, passed cold out on the floor.

Hermione was quickly ennervating her boyfriend and blushing furiously, fumbling about. "How much did you hear?" Harry asked quietly, Draco taking his seat again on the arm rest. He knew he had to behave for this part, no matter how much he didn't want to at that point in time.

"Enough!" Hermione said, shaking her head.

"Yeah, I have to hear about who tops and then I have to see that! Harry-fucking-bloody-Potter, what was that? What in the name of Merlin _fuck_ , is going on here?" Ron screamed, having been revived fully now as he growled and took a heated stance in front of his friend.

Draco was snarling angrily, his eyes slitted with anger, "You will not speak to Harry like that," he growled.

In this situation, the three other uninvolved Slytherin boys were watching with great amusement, most especially Blaise. Oh how he loved to be in the audience, watching all the pieces fall together. Even Harry couldn't move; what could he have possibly said at that moment? Was there really a way to come out and just say it? 'Ron, meet Draco Malfoy my mate. Oh yes, I know he's been a horrible git the past six years, yada yada, used to hate 'em to death. Oh right, but all that hate was really just bottled up love that I had for him, he turns out to be a Veela I'm his mate, quite a lovely situation. Oh, and does anybody even realize yet that we were just properly mated for the first time and that...DRACO MALFOY HAS WINGS? I really just thought I should let you know,' instead, he silenced himself and stared with longing emerald eyes up at the redhead.

Draco was still snarling protectively, Ron glaring icy daggers back. "Ronald, please. Why don't you just grab a-" Hermione began reasoning softly, reaching for her boyfriend who snapped away at her touch.

"How can you be so calm, 'Mione? Was I the only one who saw that?" he scowled darkly.

"No, I definitely saw it too, Weasley. Couldn't really keep my eyes off of it, actually," Blaise added chipperly from his seat, grinning like a loon as the Gryffindor's rage turned to him.

Ron raised his finger and pointed it at Zabini, as if threatningly but the boy merely began to examine his nails with a bored expression, "You. You shut your mouth, Zabini, for once," everybody looked towards him in shock, that wasn't something a Weasley just came up and said to you everyday. It wasn't the words he had used, but the tone of them, speaking with pure venom.

"Are you actually expecting me to believe that you..." Blaise looked up from his nails and leaned forward on his seat, he licked his lower lip and winked up at Ron slyly, "...didn't like that, too?"

"Arrrgh! What the bleeding hell is going on here?!" Ron screamed, throwing up his hands and beginning to pace in a small circle about the teenage group.

Draco had enough of this and yanked the redhead on the forearm and pulled him close to his face, heated anger emenating from him as Harry sat, still quiet holding onto Draco's unoccupied hand.

"You, Weasel, will shut your mouth and learn not to talk to my mate, or my friend like that. If you care one morsel about Harry, then you will sit down and hear what we have to say. Could you learn to be fucking reasonable for once, or is it impossible to get it through that thick, ratted redhead of yours?" Draco spat, his deep silver eyes devouring up every last ounce of aggression in Ron.

"Er, right. Fine then," he mumbled bitterly before releasing himself from Draco's grasp, too many questions flying through his clouded judgement to count.

Harry finally snapped out of his stupor, "Ron there's no way to really put this...but remember when I kept asking if there was, erm, something different about Draco around his birthday?"

"I remember you being off your nutter not being able to shut up about him," Ron grumbled, crossing his arms stiffly in his chair now as the rest of the people in the room kept looking between the two Gryffindor boys.

"That was because there  _was_  something different about Draco. He came into his Veela inheritance on his birthday, but I was the only person who could notice," Harry swallowed a lump that had been sitting in his throat, he was getting so close to telling Ron everything and he feared his friends anger.

"Well, Malfoy can't be a full-blooded Veela though, so what does this all matter anyway? Bill said that only full Veela's need to worry about taking a mate during the season and whatnot...that's why him and Fleur could get together, because she's only a half-Veela," Ron explained in a strange, crooked expression. What did it matter if Malfoy was half-Veela and what did that have to do with him and Harry still sitting so damn close to each other, basically snuggling?

"Honestly, Weasley, are you that thick?" Blaise drawled amusedly, recieving two heated glares from Ron and Harry at the sametime as he snickered and look down at his nails once again.

"I am a full-blooded Veela," Draco announced, he wanted this process to get along much faster than it was. He was, of course, just mated and preferred to be spending the day alone with his mate. Not crowded in the Headmaster's office with too many people wanting to hear explanations, it was bad enough to be woken up by Snape.

"Oh...well then, what's this got to do with Harry? Can't you just bugger off and go find your mate, I mean isn't it mating seas..." Ron trailed off and his chocolate eyes went wide, he looked between the two boys now, the way they were slanted against one another, the way they cast sidelong looks and squeezed one another's hands every once and awhile. It was overwhelming and he felt as though he was choking on his own air.

"Looks like the boy finally gets it!" Blaise sniggered with the other Slytherins, who couldn't help but be amused by the situation as well.

"Ron?" Harry asked softly, recieving a mere grunt in response. Ron was staring absently at the floor, his thoughts tripping over one another. "Draco and I erm, mated last night. A lot has been happening, changing in the past couple of weeks between him and I and...Ron?" he questioned again nervously, he wasn't recieving any reaction now whatsoever.

"I-I've gotta go," Ron mumbled, he untangled himself from Hermione's grip and without shooting any glance whatsoever at anybody else, he hurried and excused himself from the room.

Harry sighed and looked solemn, "Oh bugger, he hates me," he whispered.

"You know he doesn't, Harry. He just needs sometime to get used to it, he'll come around," Hermione whispered faintly, he only nodded slightly as Draco pulled him closer and bent down to kiss his forehead gently. He immediately felt more relaxed at the touch.

"Well if it's anything, we're rooting for you," Blaise grinned as Draco smirked thankfully at him, he was always a mood lightener.

"We're not for this...relationship,"

"But we're not against it, either," Crabbe and Goyle both said, ignoring Harry's appreciative glances.

"I'm happy for you, Draco," Pansy whispered finally, everybody turned to see her smilling sadly, "If you're happy with Potter then, I'm happy you're with him," although her words sounded comforting, her eyes looked sorrowful.

"Thanks Pans, guys," Draco inclined his head gently, grinning, "Because if it was you or him, well..." he grinned further.

"Oh shove off, Malfoy, you could at least act like you care," Blaise snipped playfully, a teasing glint in his eyes.

"Care about snakes like you? Well, I wouldn't see why he would even lower his standards to associate with the likes of you, Zabini," Harry drawled, Hermione looking towards him in shock at what he had just said outright.

"Really, how is he wearing Gryffindor colours and not ours?" Blaise directed his question at Draco who smirked brightly and shrugged.

"It is a mystery to be, Zabini. We will have to tell Dumbledore that the Sorting Hat needs to be refurbished for its poor decision making," he said, and then the three boys shared a small fit of laughter together.

"Harry, I think I should probably go and find Ron. Talk to him about everything," Hermione piped up, trying hard to cope with the ease that Harry could deal with Slytherin's. Maybe he really did belong in that House instead of Gryffindor.

"Of course, 'Mione. Thanks, a lot," Harry smiled over to her, "I would hug you but..."

"I would tear you to pieces," Draco finished quickly, in a light-hearted tone.

Hermione bit her lower lip and nodded before standing up and leaving the room. "Alright well if that's that, I think I would like to spend sometime with my Veela so if you could all just clear out that'd be wonderful," Harry said, pulling Draco closer to him and pressing their sides up against one another, the blonde fell back down onto his lap and snuggled into his raven-hair. That familiar musky smell wafted into his senses, soothing him.

As Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy said their awkward goodbyes, they left the room as Blaise stood slowly from his chair. "So, does this mean I get to see you two all over the school now?" he grinned.

"Erm, haven't talked about it yet actually," Harry turned toward Draco inquiringly as the blonde smiled down at him.

"Whatever you want," he merely whispered.

"Erm...we'll see," Harry said indefinitely, he really didn't know how he felt like handling this situation with everybody else at the moment. He knew the select few who did know weren't going to go around spreading rumours, or the truth for that matter, which he was quite thankful for. He even, oddly enough, trusted the four Slytherin's to keep their mouths shut.

"I guess I will just have to carry my camera around all the time now...just in case something... _exciting_  happens," Blaise winked suggestively as Draco rolled his eyes at his best friend, "Must be leaving you two lovers alone then, yeah? Unless I could stay and-"

"Get out," Harry cut him off with a low chuckle, and with that Blaise put up his hands in defense and slowly left them alone in the Headmaster's office.

Harry turned to look up at Draco, his lover, his boyfriend, his Veela. He smiled brightly, a warmth resonating inside every particle of his body as he forgot all other worries when looking at the boy sitting comfortably in his lap, smiling back down at him just as happily. "Do you think it was a good thing we didn't tell them about your wings?"

"I think so. I would prefer to keep that little part between as few of people as possible...or at least until I know how to use them," Draco added as an afterthought, he really did wonder if he could carry his full body weight in those black, velvet wings. And for how long?

"Well, why don't we go figure out now?" Harry asked, he himself just as curious as to their abilities.

"And where exactly do you propse we do that?" Draco drawled, raising his eyebrow. He most certainly wasn't going to go into the middle of the Qudditch Pitch.

"There's a small clearing in the Forbidden Forest, it's far enough from the school that nobody will notice and if we hurry, nobody will see us getting down there before breakfast starts," Harry bargained. Draco nodded in agreeance and before the two boys were off, they shared a small, quick kiss on the lips.

Yes, Harry and Draco were most definitely positive that they had never been happier in their lives.


	21. Duel

_"I don't think Potter here has spent more than a second looking at himself in the mirror and he looks pretty damn fine to me,"_

Heads were buzzing around Hogwarts, the newspapers were waiting on edge for a full report to write. Monday passed with many murmurs, whispers and speculations as to why Harry and Draco's six year feud suddenly turned into friendly smiles, light conversations in the hallways, as they walked one another to class, and sat beside one another as well. It was all very confusing for everybody else, but the two boys had decided to keep their relationship secret at least for a little while. Monday night, Draco and Harry found each other after dinner outside of the Great Hall.

"Mine or yours?" Draco asked immediately, gently wrapped his arm around Harry's ignoring the inquiring looks of the students filing out of the Great Hall.

"Ron's still not talking to me, won't even look at me," Harry grumbled sadly and sighed, "And everybody in your dorm knows, so yours," he said decidedly.

With a curt nod, Draco led Harry down into the dungeons and into the Slytherin Common Room. "You again," a snarl sounded from the couch as the small, Second Year Slytherin stood to greet Harry and Draco entering. There were a few other nameless Slytherin's in the Common Room, all who looked on at the situation.

Draco Malfoy with his arm tightly slung around Harry Potter's own arm, that definitely wasn't a sight one expected to see everyday. "Willum, mind your own sodding business," Malfoy snapped lightly, he wanted to be up in his room, crawling into bed with Harry.

"This is my business," hissed the Second Year haughtily, "This is my Common Room too, Malfoy. And I have a say in it and I say that I don't want Potter here, whether or not he's your boyfriend," he growled icily.

Harry glared daggers down at him but before either could say anything, another Fifth Year stepped in with a grimace. "Dumbledork's letting his Golden Boy play with the snakes now, is he?" he shot a deep glare at Harry, approaching the couple.

"You better watch yourself, Potter, we're not as nice as they say we are," another piped in sarcastically.

With a dark look, his deep emerald eyes pierced into those surrounding him. "Hah, you think I'm scared of  _you_? Let me warn you and say that..." he stepped menacingly closer to the second year, towering over him with a sinister expression, "...it is you, who should be worried of me," Harry's tone was not one to be reckoned with, but the Second Year merely huffed and said no more. He knew when to back down, and smartly enough so did the rest of the Slytherin's. Harry Potter was famous for a few things, his power and his temper being a few of those.

Draco merely cast a sour look at the occupants of the room before hurrying Harry along up the stairs on the left into the Boys Dormitory. He closed the door quickly behind him and found that Crabbe and Goyle were already there, both bumbling over a hex book for the Defence Against the Dark Arts duel tomorrow.

"I'ts useless, y'know. You should really just concentrate on charms and shields," Harry advised them as Draco led him to what seemed to be his bed, perfectly made up in one of the corners. It was really quite depressing in these dormitories, Harry found, no light of day making its way into the room.

"Er, thanks," Crabbe nodded, flipping to a separate part of the textbook he was holding.

"Is everybody this riled up about that Duel tomorrow?" Draco drawled, slowly unbuttoning his shirt as his eyes hardly ever left his mate.

"Don't really see why. I mean I was all up for it but..." Harry trailed off, his eyes meeting with Draco's unsurely.

"It should make for an entertaining lesson. To see what some nitwits come up with, that is," he smirked, throwing his shirt to the side of his bed and reaching for his belt now, fully aware that Harry had sat down on his trunk and was watching his every move with a raised, expectant eyebrow. "I wonder if Longbottom'll survive," he mumbled.

"Zabini's his partner, isn't he?" Harry asked uneasily, he didn't much like the idea of Neville duelling with Blaise, for he didn't see it ending quite well.

"Yes, he is," Draco began smiling at the prospect of it, unlike his mate. "We'll be off to bed then boys, knackered and all," he grinned.

"You're sleeping here?" Goyle questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Of course, you expect me to sleep in the Tower with the Weasel?" Draco scowled and shiver at the thought of it, he beckoned Harry towards the bed as he himself slid into it, beginning to close the curtains around him.

"Guess not," Crabbe shrugged uncaringly, turning back to the textbook they were riffling through.

As Harry climbed into bed with Draco, lightly pulling the covers over them, he pecked the blonde chastly on the cheek and smiled down at him. With a slight wave of his hand, the curtains closed as Draco raised his eyebrow. "I guess you'll be using Wandless magic tomorrow in our duel, then?" he inquired.

"You'll just have to wait and see, now won't you?" Harry grinned, kissing Draco once more before laying his head to rest on the blonde's chest, feeling arms wrap around him. "Are you happy? With this?" he asked softly, closing his eyes wearily. It had been a long day, of avoiding questions and not being able to openly touch his mate without the many straining eyes of students.

"Harry, I have been dreaming of this day since I offered you my hand in friendship six years ago," Draco whispered truthfully, "Of course I'm happy, love," he kissed the top of Harry's unruly raven hair before the two of them were enveloped in the warmth of their sleep.

Harry couldn't think of a better way to wake up; he was listening to the heavy heartbeat pounding in his ears through Draco's bare chest, his hands ghosted lightly across the perfect pale skin of his lover's abdomen, his morning happiness pressed eagerly against Draco's thigh. Upon looking up, he found Draco smiling blindingly down at him, his silver eyes filled with weary joy.

"Morning, Harry. Sleep well in the dungeons?" he smirked, bending down to capture Harry's lips. The same passion, electric heat burst between them as always. Neither could really explain how it felt so impossibly good to even just touch one another in the slightest.

"I could sleep in a dragon's cave well as long as you're with me," Harry grinned.

"Such a suck up," Draco mumbled and then winked before clearing his throat from its groggy morning voice. "Time to get up then, got a full day ahead of us. Defence is first thing, is it not?"

"Urgh, but Draco it's only-" Harry turned to the bedside table to look at the clock, "Six thirty! Why the bloody hell am I up at six-thirty?" he cursed, moreso to himself since he wasn't rudely awoken or anything of that matter. It was a strange day, when Harry Potter got out of bed earlier than everybody else.

"I must be rubbing off on you. Now up," Draco smirked, pushing Harry gently off of him and swinging his legs off of the bed. "I'm in the need of a good shower, it has been a couple of days," he shivered at the mere thought of it.

"Urgh, me too," Harry groaned, though he still wouldn't mind getting a few more moments of shut eye. Reluctantly, he got out of bed as well and watched as Draco quietly collected a clean school uniform for the new day.

After the boys got ready, which Harry was utterly surprised at how bleeding long somebody could take brushing their hair, it was already eight o'clock. Draco stood and observed his reflection in the mirror, the other boys were up and bustling around as well now as Harry fastened his tie and came up behind his lover, snaking his arms around his waist and pecking him on the nape of his neck. Draco smiled at Harry's reflection, receiving a small smirk in response.

"I'm surprised at how long it took you to get ready," Harry commented.

"Try living with the poof for the past six years...bleeding uses all the hot water!" Blaise snipped, coming to stand beside the couple's reflection with a genuine smirk.

"Good looks take time," Draco drawled heatedly.

"They do? Because I don't think Potter here has spent more than a second looking at himself in the mirror and he looks pretty damn fine to me," he smirked, and then had to duck the hand that swung very threateningly at his face.

Harry chuckled shaking his head, "Do you ever think about anything else?"

"How can I, with you two bloody walking around snogging one another?" Blaise teased.

"We do not walk around and snog," Draco glowered, but the other boy merely shrugged and walked off to retrieve his school bag with a grin. "So what are we going to..."

"...walk out of here holding hands, or throwing hexes?" Harry finished for Draco, "Alright c'mon then," he untangled himself from Draco and started towards the door.

"Come hither, dear Prince, we await your lead," Blaise teased as Draco shot him an icy glare, but when he heard Harry's small chuckle he couldn't help but smirk as well and then led the way out of the Slytherin dungeons and up to the Great Hall.

Breakfast was uneventful as the two 'friends' departed one another's sides, only to sit next to their house mates and stare longingly across the Hall. Harry didn't like being away from Draco's contact for too long, and henceforth wasn't always the chipper one at meals. But today was different, because he kept reminding himself what was to come after breakfast. The Defence Duels.

As Ron sat down at the Gryffindor Table, he did so many spots away from Harry and beside Neville instead, Harry frowned at this but said nothing. So he ate uneventfully alone, grateful for the shared glances from Draco and occasionally Blaise as well.

Finally as breakfast ended, Harry and Draco met in the Entrance Hall and quickly strode side-by-side as they had the previous day through-out the halls of Hogwarts, ignoring all whispers and heads that followed them. Blaise was on Harry's other side, casually casting looks over his shoulder at the Mudblood and Weasel who followed not far behind to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom.

Once inside, they all seated next to their partners as Remus strode in with a smirk on his face ."Morning class!" he chimed, getting minimal response as per usual. "As I said, anything goes that isn't illegal for these duels. I have set up a Duelling area which you are not to exit," he cocked his head behind him, where a Duelling stage had been set up just like back in Second Year, although much shorter. "Each pair shall have five minutes and five minutes only, and no more. After I blow the whistle the first time, you may begin. As I blow it a second, you must lay down your wands and I shall be the judge in whom was the winner of each pair. So first off; Mr Longbottom versus Mr Zabini," he called.

The two boys made their way to the front of the classroom, Harry sent Neville an encouraging look, for even he wouldn't want to go up against Blaise although he wouldn't have doubted being able to beat him. "Wands at the ready," Remus began slowly, the class settled into complete silence to look at the boys standing at opposite ends of the podium. Neville had a nervous smile, as Blaise was smirking readily.

The whistle blew and the duel began. Colours and hexes, shields and charms were thrown so rapidly across the stage. Wands and wizards battled it out, wit courage and speed all muddled into a five minute duel. It was surprising when Neville successfully knocked Blaise out with an Unconscious Curse, it stunned even Harry until everybody began to clap for the victor.

The class continued on like this, everybody began slowly and nervously but then a large variety of spells were cast, bringing excitement in all those participated and watched on the side lines. Hermione, surprisingly lost, to Pansy Parkinson. Ron and Nott fell to a draw. And then, after everybody else had gone, Remus turned a cheery lopsided grin on the last pair to compete. "Of course he left us till last," Draco mumbled beneath his breath only so his mate could hear, who smirked and rolled his eyes.

"Mister Potter, Mister Malfoy, if you would,"

Everybody stilled and watched as the two infamous boys slowly stood up from their seats and made their way onto the duelling stage. They gave each other odd, sidelong glances before parting to their own opposite ends of the stage. Suddenly, Harry didn't have a good feeling about this. He looked across and held his gaze with those liquid silver eyes, the same eyes he woke up to that morning and wanted to wake up to every morning for the rest of his life.

With a sweaty palm he gripped his wand, his eyes never leaving Draco's. On the other side of the stage, Draco wasn't doing so well himself. He felt his instincts riled up inside of himself, he was about to throw hexes and curses at his mate, the one person he was sworn to protect since his inheritance began. Remus' whistle had blown, but the both hadn't heard it. The class was stilled, nobody moved or spoke as they somehow felt the energy that was being awkwardly passed between the two. The reluctance, and the wait to see who would cast a curse first.

Harry took a deep, shuddering breath and threw a simple Tripping Jinx at Draco, though he did not speak or move his wand. Draco suddenly fell to the floor and grimaced, and by the time he was on his feet once more the fight had begun.

Draco spoke with ease, the curses rolling off the tip of his tongue every few seconds as Harry blocked them off or threw them in reverse. Harry did not speak a word, or use his wand as he retaliated. Colours soared, the energy level heightened and Draco found himself getting more into it despite the need to protect his mate growing. He knew Harry could throw off any curse, he wasn't so worried after the three minute mark.

" _Incendia Insum_ ," Draco threw the curse, black tendrils lashed out of his wand and towards his mate. Harry hadn't seen a curse like this before and his eyes went momentarily wide before he expected the force of it to crash into his Protego shield thrown up simultaneously. But the black tendrils didn't hit his shield, instead Draco drew back the curse and ended it right before it hit the invisible barrier.

Harry blinked a few times, wondering whether or not he should fire a curse in response. " _Mens congelo_ ," he whispered, and Draco's arm automatically dropped and his wand clattered to the floor. His hands came up to the sides of his head and began scratching curiously. It was an odd feeling the blonde was going through, as if a ton of ice cubes had just been dropped on his brain.

Remus blew his whistle and quickly stepped onto the stage, " _Finite Incantartum_ ," he flickered his wand at Draco but the icy feeling didn't seem to stop.

Draco decided that it didn't hurt, it was just too strange feeling. He wanted it to stop. For some reason, his body and mind felt numbed together. "Harry...what did you do?" he looked up at his mate who was smiling sadly over at him.

Harry gathered himself and sauntered over to Draco, unaware of the entire class watching still hyped up from their exciting duel. "It won't stop until I let it go," Harry exlpained, and then as he came close enough to Draco he reached out and brushed his fingers against the side of his face. Immediately a warming sensation rushed up to Draco's head, releasing the cold.

It took a few moments for the Slytherin to regain himself, he retrieved his wand being offered by Harry who was smiling sheepishly now. "It didn't seem like you much wanted to fight any more, so I thought I'd end it," he shrugged.

"I do not believe it was in my wishes to duel against you in the first place," Draco grumbled, his head was feeling a little strange, "Potter, whatever you did it was the strangest feeling I have ever known," he admitted as Harry blushed and looked away from the Veela.

"Yes, Mister Potter. What was it that you just performed? I have never heard of any mens con-"

"Don't say it!" Harry abruptly cut off Remus who raised an eyebrow at him, crossing his arms and expecting an answer. Harry shuffled his feet and looked interestedly down at the ground, "It's, uhm, well...something I kinda made up..." he whispered.

"Something you made up? Harry, you cannot possibly mean to tell me that you...created a curse?" Remus asked in a low, tone as the brunette slowly nodded, all eyes turned on Harry now in amazement. "What was it and why can't I say it?"

"I just don't think it advisable to say it aloud unless you know what it does, you could very possibly freeze your own brain and I wouldn't know how to get you outta that one," Harry replied sheepishly. "It's a Mind Freezing Curse, it creates the feeling of ice being dumped over your brain. It makes you unable to really think, or feel much for that matter. I've been developing a few experimental spells that could help me when..." he trailed off.

Remus nodded knowingly, though it was rather difficult for him to shut his mouth, "Well, that's..."

"That was an unfair duel," Draco broke in quickly, he felt his mate's uneasiness by the topic of conversation and felt like coming in to aid him. Harry looked quizzically at him.

"And how so, Mister Malfoy?"

"Harry said that he thought I wanted to end it, so he ended it. He could've done that, or something else, all along. It was not fair for he was not putting his full effort forward, and truthfully neither was I," Draco stated, Remus looked knowingly at him.

"Yes, yes well you both may be excused from the assignment if that is what you wish," Remus concluded.

"I don't think that's fair," a cold voice sounded from the back of the classroom, Harry turned to look at Ron who was staring blankly up at the Defence teacher.

"What do you suggest then, Mister Weasley?"

"Have Harry duel you," Ron shrugged non-committally, diverting his gaze now to something on the other side of the classroom. Everybody looked between Remus' uncomfortable gaze to Harry's bored one.

"I have no problem with that," Harry said quietly after a few minutes, "It might do me some good, actually. A little real competition," he teased the blonde who sneered over at him.

"You know I'm the only real competition for you, Potter," Draco drawled, but did not take offence to leaving the stage and allowing their Professor to take his place. He wanted to see what was to come of their duel as well as most of the classroom who was now looking expectantly at the werewolf.

Remus took Draco's spot, his wand raised as Harry slipped his own back into his pocket. It was useless to him these days anyway. "On the count of three," He began, "One, two, three," Remus quickly threw a wordless hex at Harry who anticipated to have it rebound.

But then something wholly unexpected happened. A loud cry, a flutter of black velvet wings shot up out of Draco's back, and the blonde boy was lifted off of the ground and Harry found himself suddenly wrapped in their familiar warmth. He was peering up at Draco's shocked face, blinking down at him. "Draco...what was that?" Harry asked slowly, unsure.

"Reflex," Draco grumbled, he cocked his head in Remus' direction with a small sigh, ignoring the gasps and astonished students who were looking at a whole new sight they had never expected to see. Draco Malfoy had just sprouted wings and not only flew with them, but flew to Harry Potter's side and blocked a curse, protected him and was holding him in his arms. "Sorry about that Professor, I do not believe my Veela instincts are going to allow you to raise your wand at Harry's direction again. Ever again," he added again with slight malice.

Remus was wide-eyed and shocked but quickly this turned into a small smile and he nodded vigorously, "Of course! No need to apologize, Draco,"

"I guess the cat's outta the bag," Harry commented dryly, looking on at the stunned faces of the Defence class. Except, of course, for Blaise who was grinning in the corner.

"The what is out of what now? Potter, I would appreciate it if you would stop speaking in riddles," Draco hissed, still not releasing his mate as he ignored his classmates around him.

"Boys, I think it would do well to uhm...release one another and...put away your...erm..." Remus stuttered, blushing lightly, "I think it's best if class were adjourned for today," he concluded confusedly. Vaguely aware that most of the students in the room didn't make a move to leave, all still captivated by Draco's wings enveloping Harry Potter - whom didn't seem uncomfortable with it whatsoever.

"Harry? You've got, uhm...a free period now?" Ron's uneasy voice sounded weakly from beside the couple who turned to face him, Draco scowled but the redhead ignored him.

"Er, yeah I do," Harry said, having not spoken to Ron since Sunday.

"Do you two, wanna take a walk? I think we should, uhm...talk...and maybe get away from..." he trailed off and looked behind him at the class, most still staring slack jawed at the two of them.

"You know? I think that's a great idea," Harry agreed hurriedly with a grin, he untangled from Draco and grabbed the blonde's hand instead ignoring a few further gasps at this gesture and inclined his head towards Hermione. "You coming?" he asked, and the led their way out of the Defence classroom.

It wasn't just Herimone, Ron, Draco and Harry walking down onto the Grounds however, as Blaise was quickly at Draco's side. They completely ignored the very astonished, questioning faces and the voices screaming at them in the crowded Hogwarts hallway. Mostly, astonished faces just followed them with widened eyes, as Draco had yet to retract his beautiful velvet wings. Even Ron, Hermione and Blaise couldn't stop staring at them as they walked.

"So Ron, what did you want to talk about?" Harry urged.

"I erm," Ron took a deep breath, "I've been going over this for a few days in my head now and...uhm..I wanted to say that, I'm alright with this. I mean, you haven't really got a choice any more anyway, and whatnot, but I'm alright with...you and...Malfoy here," he stuttered.

Harry shot him a blinding grin, his emerald eyes filled with happiness. He didn't feel a care in the world, his hand still entwined tightly with Draco's with the heat emenating between them as Ron, his best mate, was giving his blessing. "Thanks Ron, it means so much,"

"I told you he would come around," Hermione commented quietly from behind them, smiling over at her boyfriend and reaching for his hand as well.

"Yes, all is well," Blaise drawled sarcastically, "Now all you two have to do is deal with the entire student body..."

"Not to mention the Daily Prophet. I wonder what good old Rita Skeeter will have to say about this," Ron chipped in with a smirk, Harry groaned loudly.

"Yes, but I do not have to deal with Weasel _all_ the time, do I?" Draco grumbled, but everybody merely ignored him beside Ron's icy glare.

Harry found himself grinning again, despite the minor prospect of having to deal with the public in the back of his mind. He then said something that caused for all five teenagers to be sent into a row of rapacious laughter, "So Draco...when do I get to meet dearest Daddy-In-Law?"

_Fin._


End file.
